Books & Boots at Great Mountain Forest: Of Time and Turtles

Date: 07/20/2024
Time: 8:00 am-9:30 am

Please join us for our next Books & Boots hike on Saturday, July 20 at 8:00 a.m. We will hike the Tamarack Trail at Great Mountain Forest under the leadership of Hartley Mead and Bina Thomson as we discuss Of Time and Turtles: Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell by Sy Montgomery. It is not necessary to have read the book first and all hiking abilities are welcome.

Meet at the GMF East Gate visitor sign-in at 201 Windrow Road, Norfolk, CT 06058. Bina Thomson from the Norfolk Library and Hartley Mead from the Norfolk Land Trust will be waiting to greet people. Wear appropriate hiking attire. 

Please register below. Of Time and Turtles is available at 31 libraries throughout Connecticut. If our copy is checked out and you would like to request a copy through inter-library loan, please contact Norfolk Library’s Front Desk Circulation at 860-542-5075, ext. 2.

More about the book:

In the basement of a bright green but otherwise ordinary suburban house, two women are caring for hundreds, sometimes thousands, of sick and injured turtles. There are painted and snapping turtles whose shells were crushed by cars; spotted turtles who were chewed by dogs; box turtles with shells deformed from years of inept care in captivity; exotic pet tortoises abandoned by their owners; turtles rescued from the illegal trade in wildlife; baby turtles hatched from eggs rescued from slain mothers.

Some of these cases seem hopeless. Turtles arrive with brain trauma, broken jaws, missing limbs. Fire Chief, a 42-pound, 60-year-old snapping turtle was hit by a truck, his back legs paralyzed, his shell smashed and bloodied. But Turtle Rescue League’s motto is “Never give up on a Turtle.” And when National Book award finalist Sy Montgomery and wildlife artist Matt Patterson joined them as volunteers, they took part in heart-pounding dramas and breathtaking miracles. Working with extraordinary humans and extraordinary turtles (including Fire Chief) forever changed their lives in ways they never could have suspected. 

Hopeful and deeply researched, warm and astonishing, this book is an invitation to slip into turtle time—not the tick-tock hurry of human hustle, but the sacred, eternal time of daylight, darkness, and seasons. It’s a story that shows us a way to heal a world beset with unprecedented perils, shell by shattered shell.

Registration: