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Turtle Dreams
Sent by an elder relative to go gather dreams, Turtle sets out to do so, but not knowing what dreams are, he becomes confused, until he happens upon a dream of his own deep in the mud.
- GenresPicture Books
48 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 1997
About the author
Marion Dane Bauer
181 books185 followersMarion Dane Bauer is the author of more than one hundred books for young people, ranging from novelty and picture books through early readers, both fiction and nonfiction, books on writing, and middle-grade and young-adult novels. She has won numerous awards, including several Minnesota Book Awards, a Jane Addams Peace Association Award for RAIN OF FIRE, an American Library Association Newbery Honor Award for ON MY HONOR, a number of state children's choice awards and the Kerlan Award from the University of Minnesota for the body of her work.
She is also the editor of and a contributor to the ground-breaking collection of gay and lesbian short stories, Am I Blue? Coming Out from the Silence.
Marion was one of the founding faculty and the first Faculty Chair for the Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her writing guide, the American Library Association Notable WHAT'S YOUR STORY? A YOUNG PERSON'S GUIDE TO WRITING FICTION, is used by writers of all ages. Her books have been translated into more than a dozen different languages.
She has six grandchildren and lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, with her partner and a cavalier King Charles spaniel, Dawn.
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INTERVIEW WITH MARION DANE BAUER
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Q. What brought you to a career as a writer?
A. I seem to have been born with my head full of stories. For almost as far back as I can remember, I used most of my unoccupied moments--even in school when I was supposed to be doing other "more important" things--to make up stories in my head. I sometimes got a notation on my report card that said, "Marion dreams." It was not a compliment. But while the stories I wove occupied my mind in a very satisfying way, they were so complex that I never thought of trying to write them down. I wouldn't have known where to begin. So though I did all kinds of writing through my teen and early adult years--letters, journals, essays, poetry--I didn't begin to gather the craft I needed to write stories until I was in my early thirties. That was also when my last excuse for not taking the time to sit down to do the writing I'd so long wanted to do started first grade.
Q. And why write for young people?
A. Because I get my creative energy in examining young lives, young issues. Most people, when they enter adulthood, leave childhood behind, by which I mean that they forget most of what they know about themselves as children. Of course, the ghosts of childhood still inhabit them, but they deal with them in other forms--problems with parental authority turn into problems with bosses, for instance--and don't keep reaching back to the original source to try to fix it, to make everything come out differently than it did the first time. Most children's writers, I suspect, are fixers. We return, again and again, usually under the cover of made-up characters, to work things through. I don't know that our childhoods are necessarily more painful than most. Every childhood has pain it, because life has pain in it at every stage. The difference is that we are compelled to keep returning to the source.
Q. You write for a wide range of ages. Do you write from a different place in writing for preschoolers than for young adolescents?
A. In a picture book or board book, I'm always writing from the womb of the family, a place that--while it might be intruded upon by fears, for instance--is still, ultimately, safe and nurturing. That's what my own early childhood was like, so it's easy for me to return to those feelings and to recreate them.
When I write for older readers, I'm writing from a very different experience. My early adolescence, especially, was a time of deep alienation, mostly from my peers but in some ways from my family as well. And so I write my older stories out of that pain, that longing for connection. A story has to have a problem at its core. No struggle
She is also the editor of and a contributor to the ground-breaking collection of gay and lesbian short stories, Am I Blue? Coming Out from the Silence.
Marion was one of the founding faculty and the first Faculty Chair for the Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her writing guide, the American Library Association Notable WHAT'S YOUR STORY? A YOUNG PERSON'S GUIDE TO WRITING FICTION, is used by writers of all ages. Her books have been translated into more than a dozen different languages.
She has six grandchildren and lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, with her partner and a cavalier King Charles spaniel, Dawn.
-------------------------------------
INTERVIEW WITH MARION DANE BAUER
-------------------------------------
Q. What brought you to a career as a writer?
A. I seem to have been born with my head full of stories. For almost as far back as I can remember, I used most of my unoccupied moments--even in school when I was supposed to be doing other "more important" things--to make up stories in my head. I sometimes got a notation on my report card that said, "Marion dreams." It was not a compliment. But while the stories I wove occupied my mind in a very satisfying way, they were so complex that I never thought of trying to write them down. I wouldn't have known where to begin. So though I did all kinds of writing through my teen and early adult years--letters, journals, essays, poetry--I didn't begin to gather the craft I needed to write stories until I was in my early thirties. That was also when my last excuse for not taking the time to sit down to do the writing I'd so long wanted to do started first grade.
Q. And why write for young people?
A. Because I get my creative energy in examining young lives, young issues. Most people, when they enter adulthood, leave childhood behind, by which I mean that they forget most of what they know about themselves as children. Of course, the ghosts of childhood still inhabit them, but they deal with them in other forms--problems with parental authority turn into problems with bosses, for instance--and don't keep reaching back to the original source to try to fix it, to make everything come out differently than it did the first time. Most children's writers, I suspect, are fixers. We return, again and again, usually under the cover of made-up characters, to work things through. I don't know that our childhoods are necessarily more painful than most. Every childhood has pain it, because life has pain in it at every stage. The difference is that we are compelled to keep returning to the source.
Q. You write for a wide range of ages. Do you write from a different place in writing for preschoolers than for young adolescents?
A. In a picture book or board book, I'm always writing from the womb of the family, a place that--while it might be intruded upon by fears, for instance--is still, ultimately, safe and nurturing. That's what my own early childhood was like, so it's easy for me to return to those feelings and to recreate them.
When I write for older readers, I'm writing from a very different experience. My early adolescence, especially, was a time of deep alienation, mostly from my peers but in some ways from my family as well. And so I write my older stories out of that pain, that longing for connection. A story has to have a problem at its core. No struggle
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 7, 2008
Bob and I took a break from Dr. Seuss to read this for our bedtime story. It was very cute, especially if you're reading it to a turtle. It's a good beginning readers book, broken into small chapters and using large type with a lot of white space. The illustrations were good. I liked some of the detail that could easily be overlooked. I liked the different animal comparisons as I seem to do in many animal picture books. Turtle was a cute turtle. I liked her turtle dreams. Good book for little turtles and little children.
January 25, 2026
Instructed by her Great-great-great Grandmother to collect dreams in preparation for her coming winter brumation, Turtle sets out to find some in this lovely beginning chapter-book from author Marion Dane Bauer and illustration Diane Dawson Hearn. She questions Otter, Squirrel and Bird about their dreams, but concludes they aren't suitable for a turtle, eventually returning to her pond and delving deep into the bottom mud for her winter rest. Here however, she discovers that all things are possible in our dreams...
Published in 1997, Turtle Dreams is the second entry in the Holiday House Reader collection, featuring beginning-reader/chapter-book hybrids with short and simple chapters, that I have read from Bauer and Hearn, following upon their subsequent 1998 Christmas in the Forest. I'm glad I requested the two at the same time, as my mostly indifferent response to that other title might have put me off seeking this one out, which would have been a shame, as it is quite appealing. The text is simple but expressive, capturing the wonder of our dream world, where we can do anything, even those things that are physically impossible for us. The accompanying artwork is beautiful, with a lovely color palette and charming animal characters. Recommended to young readers who are just getting going with chapter-books.
Published in 1997, Turtle Dreams is the second entry in the Holiday House Reader collection, featuring beginning-reader/chapter-book hybrids with short and simple chapters, that I have read from Bauer and Hearn, following upon their subsequent 1998 Christmas in the Forest. I'm glad I requested the two at the same time, as my mostly indifferent response to that other title might have put me off seeking this one out, which would have been a shame, as it is quite appealing. The text is simple but expressive, capturing the wonder of our dream world, where we can do anything, even those things that are physically impossible for us. The accompanying artwork is beautiful, with a lovely color palette and charming animal characters. Recommended to young readers who are just getting going with chapter-books.
May 16, 2008
Well crafted beginning reader that is a delightful story.
May 1, 2012
Turtle was very cute and made me think about Bob. :) I like the idea of enjoying someone else's dreams, but then finding your own and those are the best of all!
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August 16, 2011Turtle is out gathering dreams before winter sets in
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews