One of my finds at the wonderful Bath Book Bash in Bath, Maine two weeks ago was Twig and Turtle, No Hard Feelings by Jennifer Jacobson. I’m new to this early reader series, coming in at number #6, but now that I’ve found it, gift giving for my eight-year-old Grand One, Emily, is in the bag.
Pop singer Mae, with a hit environmental song and accompanying dance called Mae’s Say that sisters Twig and Turtle love to perform, is coming to town to visit her cousin - Twig’s friend Lottie. Lottie can invite one friend to dinner. Who will it be? When Twig experiences two rejections in one day, she stumbles upon a TED talk speaker who loses his fear of rejection by actually trying to get people to say NO to him one hundred times. When Twig’s and Turtle’s family agrees to the challenge of gathering five rejections in one week, Turtle is off and running. “May I have a taste,” she asks a stranger with a Danish.
Sometimes rejection is hard to come by. But Mom, Dad, Twig, and Turtle each have their turn at the prize of being royalty for a night. Twig realizes that there are often reasons for rejection and learns to take them less personally. When Mae surprises Twig and Turtle with a visit in response to Twig’s letter, everyone gets to sing and dance Mae’s Say with its famous artist. Illustration sketches by Paula Franco add to Twig and Turtle’s charm.
Praise for Twig and Turtle come from School Library Journal and The Horn Book. My Christmas shopping for Emily is done!
At the Book Bash, Jennifer Jacobson shared a table with Jamie Hogan, illustrator of Jacobson’s picture book Oh, Chickadee!
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