A slowly paced story of the life of Buttons, the turtle, trying to guide parents to properly care for him. This can be a great tool for a family, classroom, or children new to caring for animals and new to sharing their own struggles with meeting new people or being in new environments. Not the tale of adventure expected but definitely a story of compassion.

A very peculiar little read. The characters speech didn't quite seem right. Not a bad storyline though.

My daughter wanted to read this book because she is a big animal person. She read this book in a little over a day and loved it so much. She said that after reading the book she wanted to get it in print so this is a book that all kids and teens would like. For someone who reads a lot, this book is cute in it's own way. If you have a child who loves turtles and wants to learn more about them this is the book for them. I highly recommend allowing your child to read this.

With thanks the NetGalley and the publishers for providing a copy to enable me to review this title.
This delightful narrative follows from the point of view of a small turtle, rescued from an uncertain future by his new parents, Paul and Jane. This story follows their adventures, the ups and downs until the happy ever after, but with a twist.
I found this unputdownable! A narrative that will stay with me for a long time.

Explore life as a baby box turtle!

My Turtle Journal follows a wee box turtle that has been lost in a storm and ended up on a road. A caring woman finds it and brings it home to her husband Paul. They take care of the turtle, setting up a terrarium for it. Because the turtle is so teensy, they call it Buttons. All of the stories are told from Buttons point of view, and Westing does a good job of impressing just how little creatures can be terrified of even the most well meaning human. We are, after all, far bigger than most animals. Buttons soon comes to love its human family though.

This is a great book about box turtle life and care. There are some parts that are sad, so it might not be suitable for very young children, depending on parental preference. We keep very little from our cubs, and don't sugarcoat things. I suppose that comes from that I was raised on a horse farm and learned some lessons early. Like, do not take a farm cat’s catch from it, if it's still alive. I took a mole our big tom had caught away from him and my grandmother made me give it back. She said that's how he got his food, and he worked hard for it. Mind… my grandparents didn't harm animals unnecessarily, and it's from them I got my own love. My grandmother would be the first to take in orphaned or injured critters to rehabilitate.

***Many thanks to Netgalley and Dog Ear Publishing for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I grew up with box turtles as pets. We usually found them on the side of a busy road. My all time favorite one was Junkyard (found in a junkyard) and he was so much like Buttons. He loved for me to pet his head, he ate out of my hand and loved for me to talk to him. He would do a happy turtle dance when he saw me.

Reading My Turtle Journal made me think of him so much. I was disappointed with a scene towards the end. I was very teary eyed.
This book would be good for third grade and above but younger than that might be a little disturbing to them towards the end. As a reader you might want to skip that part if you share the story with younger kids.

A great story to teach kids how to care for a turtle and help them understand their hard shell can protect them but they can still get hurt.