The Adventures of Tide: The Ocean-going Green Sea Turtle

Book Review of The Adventures of Tide, the Ocean-going Green Sea Turtle
The Children’s Book Review

What to Expect: Ocean, Green Sea Turtle, Adventure, Long-Distance Journey, Marine Life, Ecology, and Mythology.

A compelling coming-of-age journey following an ocean-going green sea turtle’s quest to find her place in the vast, beautiful, and dangerous ocean world.

Tide is an eighty-year-old green sea turtle in her prime, swimming a thousand-mile marathon to her natal shore where she was born a small hatchling. Tide is guided through the waters by a longing for home, often recalling vivid recollections of her perilous birth-dash upon the sand, the chaotic but formative time she spent alone on the open sea, and her maturation in a sprawling, ever-changing floating ecosystem called Sargasso Town. The mystery surrounding the purpose and navigation of her solitary, long-distance journey is the undertow that readily pulls readers through the pages.

Author Arthur F. Klein employs a unique, conversational narrative style, frequently breaking the fourth wall to address the reader directly and impart facts about sea turtle biology and oceanography—it reads like a blend of fantasy adventure and nature documentary. The prose is descriptive, especially when detailing the ocean environment, such as the swell’s “great heaving mountains with long sloping valleys”. While the shift between the main narrative’s past tense and the informative present tense is frequent, it establishes a distinct, approachable voice. The story is rich in world-building, populating the deep with memorable characters like the manta ray Mourning Ray and the Great Bearded Philosophers.

With its blend of adventurous action and natural history, this book would be most enjoyed by middle-grade readers, particularly those who appreciate animal stories and are interested in the mysteries of the sea. All in all, The Adventures of Tide is an enduring, imaginative, and informative story that captures the wonder of the natural world and the universal desire for home. 

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