First of all, I have to say that the illustrations are gorgeous. I picked this one up especially because my son has a turtle pacifier that goes everywhere with him, so I'm particularly interested in turtle books these days :-P
Thomas the Turtle's father once got swept away, and he promised his mother he'd never return to the spot of the accident...but of course he gets curious and just has to check it out! Of course he gets swept away too, and once lost prays that he'll get back to his family. A compassionate couple finds him and decides to help him, and he gets back home in the end. Great lessons throughout on listening to your mother, helping those in need, etc. All in all this does have a good moral story, although I personally can do without the emphasis on prayer being the answer.

any lover of turtles will enjoy this charming story

​An adorable and well illustrated turtle story. I really enjoyed it and children of all ages should enjoy this as well. ​Mother's have great wisdom, and should be listened to. Will Thomas learn that before it's too late?

My copy came from Net Galley. My thoughts and opinions are my own. This review is left of my own free volition.

This cute story explains a turtle's adventure into the forbidden area. In its colorful pages, it shows children that animals have thoughts, feelings, and communicate with one another. What I really liked about this story was the lesson about animals in nature should be kept in nature. It shows children that even though it might be cool to have a turtle as a pet, he/she does have a home and that is where he/she belongs. Very cute and enjoyable read for young children!

One curious turtle takes a dangerous journey in The Adventure of Thomas the Turtle by Stuart Samuel. The story is simply told with lovely colorful illustrations. Thomas’ story is one of family, kindness of others, going astray and returning home the wiser for the journey. Also within the story is a spiritual quality that I was pleased to see.

Geared towards young children, Thomas’ adventure has enough danger to keep them interested but not so much as to scare children. Early elementary children would enjoy seeing the events from Thomas’ perspective. Maybe like me, they will always relate any turtle that see to Thomas, speculating on what kind of adventure the turtle is taking at the time.

While this was a good book, it was not special. Thomas disobeys his mother, but gets lucky enough to find his way back to her. There was never any real suspense. It was a given that he would get home from his adventure safely. It also seemed like a religious book, with him praying and then giving thanks to God.

My Thoughts: This is a cute story about a young turtle who one day, decides to go against his mother's rules, going to the forbidden region. Thomas' father was lost in the forbidden region of the pond and never seen again. Thomas goes on a wild ride and ends up far from home and struggles to find a way back. Fortunately, two children are there to assist him.
The illustrations made this book for me. They were very well done and do a great job showing Thomas' story from home, to the forbidden region, and back again.

Thomas the Turtle lives in Placid Pond with his family. Thomas' mother warns him never to go to the forbidden region of the pond. An evil force lives there and it swept his father away.

Thomas plays with his sister and explores, but eventually his curiosity gets the best of him and he heads to the forbidden region. Like his father, the water in the forbidden region pulls him away, far away. This starts Thomas' adventure and his struggle to get back to Placid Lake.

The Adventure of Thomas the Turtle is a more realistic nature book then the typical cartoon or bright colored picture book for children. The paintings are more realistic, although the Thomas definitely shows a bit more personality, nature is depicted with realism. Thomas crosses the line and gets into danger, and the situation brings to mind how we can teach our children more closely about real animal life when we find stray turtles, and other wildlife. Excellent teaching tool for homeschoolers, libraries, schools, and young readers who love nature and wildlife.

This is a sweet book! The illustrations are beautiful and it teaches a very important lesson. Highly recommend!

This was a fun trip - literally - although Thomas, heedless of the good advice he was given, probably didn't think so as he was swept from the placid waters of his boringly calm pond, down the creek and over a waterfall. Can he get back home? Don't you just hate book blurbs that ask questions with the obvious answer "Yes"?! Fortunately this one had no such dumb blurb because it wasn't a dumb story. Although I have to say that the 'turtles' here looked far more like tortoises to me! But who cares? Maybe tortoises are just turtles with a dry sense of humor....

Thomas's father disappeared a long time ago when he went down the dangerous end of the pond. Thomas of course cannot resist following his lead, and he has a slightly scary adventure tumbling downstream. Just when he thinks he might never get home, fortune, as they say, favors the brave. He gets a piece for good luck and doesn't have to...shell out for a bus ride back home!

The book worked equally well on a smart phone as it did on a tablet (both in a Kindle app which is frankly not the best way to look at picture books). But if you're caught without the tablet, you can get by with the phone, which is always nice, although the pictures aren't shown at their best on the smaller screen, and the phone doesn't allow enlargement of the pictures for a closer look, whereas the tablet does.

The story was amusing, and a bit scary, and engaging. The artwork was adorable. I'm not an artist. In fact I'm about as far from one as you can get without going all the way around the other side and backing into it by mistake, but this was at least reminiscent of watercolor and oddly maybe mixed with crayon, and it looked really great. I recommend this book for young children who like adventure - and who doesn't as long as you can be safe at home reading about it?!

The illustrations are terrific! The story has great potential but is way too wordy with too many passive passages. The language seems stilted and forced. It's also a bit preachy.

Thomas the turtle lives with his sister Sally and his mother Myrtle at Placid Pond. His father unfortunately disappears one day while he and his eleven brothers are out swimming and exploring uncharted territory. Some strange mysterious force sweeps him away and he is never seen again. The spot where he vanishes is named the forbidden region and Thomas promises his mother that he will never, ever go near there.

But one day curiosity gets the best of Thomas and he strikes out to go to search for his father. He paddles towards the forbidden region and he himself experiences the evil force pulling him forward rendering him helpless. Oh my! No matter how much he resists and splashes it is futile. Poor Thomas gets swept away by the evil, demonic swell as well.

The rest of the story centres around how the struggling exhausted little turtle makes his way back home to his family. Through prayer and two kind compassionate strangers (who are answers to his prayers), he is lead back to the safety and care of his beloved mother and sister. He learns a very valuable life lesson... listen and obey what your mother tells you.

The illustrations are amazing and can easily stand alone. They enrich the text greatly. I love the care that the humans bestow on the pathetic little guy and that they make the right to choice to take him back to his pond enabling him to stay in his natural habitat as opposed to bringing him home for their pet. I highly recommend this book.

This is a cute little story about a turtle who doesn't take his mother's advice and wanders into the area where his father was last seen. What had appeared to be a calm part of the pond suddenly revealed itself to have hidden dangers and Thomas is swept downstream.

From then on he has to use his own ingenuity and determination to get back to his safe part of the pond. Along the way he is helped by some children who sensibly realise that he is a wild creature and shouldn't be taken home as a pet.

A highly moral tale about listening to advice, but also dealing with adversity. Unfortunately it does have some rather dated vocabulary that wouldn't be used by a young child, or his parents.

Nathaniel Dailey's illustrations are good, particularly of the wildlife, less so of the children.
Unfortunately the cover screams out Indie publication. I don't know why this is always so but Indie books always seem to be instantly recognisable.

Between bright illustrations of forest and water a mama turtle tells her son not to go to the forbidden zone, where his dad was lost so long ago. He’s a kid, one who roughhouses with his sister; guess what happens.
Pretty simple story well told, with a message parents will love, if not kids. Even the humans come off well in this one.

I was hoping to love this book, but didn't. While I like the idea of it (the turtle learning a lesson), I didn't like the language that was used and didn't think it was very appropriate for the age of children I teach (5 &6). I also thought the way the mom described the father was a bit weird. Rather than saying that the father loved Thomas she says, "...he was very fond of you". Not really how I would expect a mother to talk to her child about their father's love for them. The term "forbidden region" also gave me flashbacks to The Lion King, referring to the area that Simba wasn't supposed to go to. Also got some God related undertones that I wasn't expecting so I'm wondering if this book is affiliated with a religious publisher. All in all the book was okay, but not one that I would read in my classroom, and not one that I personally would purchase for someone.

The illustrations in this book were beautiful as well as accurate, as the daughter of a herpetologist I often have problems with inaccuracies of animals both in drawing and in the narrative.
I loved that this book mentioned the turtles need for water and that the human kids did the right thing. I have to admit I was slightly disappointed at this resolution though, I really was expecting Thomas to find his father and the two of themy to find their way home together so I was let down by that but in the end this is still a cute story with beautiful pictures to encourage little ones to have a passion for the natural world.

A school library read for children easy read and well illustrated some children can associate with the story of disobeying parents going on adventures and exploting the world.

This is a story about Thomas the Turtle who wants to venture beyond Placid Pond. When he goes to a place where he has been warned by his mother not to go, he gets into a very dangerous situation. Fortunately for Thomas, it ends well. The illustrations are very nice and my grandson and I talked about them, but he was not really interested in the story, it was too long for him. I think this would be a good story for children 5 to 6 with the message being to listen to your parents when they warn you about danger. Could be used with a great discussion afterwards. A nice addition for family libraries.