Category Archives: Book

Our Planet

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Title: Our Planet
Author(s): Alastair Fothergill, Keith Scholey
Release year: 2019
Publisher: Bantam Press

Why in Database: A book supplement to the first season of the Our Planet series, with a few turtle mentions and one turtle photo. All turtle fragments:

Around its shores, the waters teem with life. In this ‘bathtub ring of biodiversity’ lurk crocodiles, water cobras, terrapins and more unique species tha in the Galapagos Islands.

SEAGRASS GRAZER
A green turtle grazes on seagrass in a bay off Misool, one of the Indonesian Raja Ampat islands. Behind, blacktip reef sharks patrol in search of small fish and other sea creatures. This bay – once a shark-finning camp – is now part of a rich marine reserve, transformed in less than a decade. The seagrass provides food, habitat and nursery areas for numerous fish and other species, stabilizes the seabed and filters out pollution. Seagrass plants need light and therefore clear water to grow, and they can easily be smothered by sediment run-off or algal blooms caused by agricultural or other land pollution.

The dense meadows are also home to turtles, dugongs and their close relations, manatees.

The reserve encompasses 120,000 hectares (296,525 acres) of reefs that had previously been damaged by dynamite fishing, general overfishing and shark fishing. But such activities are now banned, and at the heart of the reserve is a ‘no-take zone’ where all fishing and other activities such as collecting turtle eggs are prohibited.

The villagers have leased part of the reef to a high-end diving resort, which generates tourist revenues. In return they also receive incomes from jobs as park rangers and pilots on patrol boats that see off foreign fishing boats after shark fins and turtles.

Better news is that, in 2017, oil prospecting was banned from around the 300-kilometre-long (190-mile) Belize Barrier Reef, home to some 1.400 marine species, including hawksbill turtles, manatees, rays and six types of shark, and part of the Mesoamerican Reef, the largest reef system in the western hemisphere.

Author: XYuriTT

Świerszcze w soli

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Title: wierszcze w soli
Author(s): Agnieszka Hałas
Release year: 2023
Publisher: Sine Qua Non

Why in Database: Turtles appear here in a slightly far-fetched way – in one of the stories (“Pod skórą”) we have a mention of tortoiseshell cats.

Na posłaniach z futer i jedwabi śpią koty wszystkich barw – bure, czarne, łaciate, rude, białe, szylkretowe.

Source: Mossar, Developed: XYuriTT

Sprzedawcy marzeń

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Title: Sprzedawcy marzeń
Author(s): Various
Release year: 2023
Publisher: ŚKF

Why in Database: In one of the stories in this collection (“Kałuża”, written by Agnieszka Żak), turtles appear, literally in the form of one mention.

Pomiędzy rubinowymi gałęziami koralu pływały błazenki, pokolce i inne tropikalne rybki we wszystkich kolorach tęczy. Na parapetach osiadły rozgwiazdy, a z okien wypłyneły żółwie.

Source: Mossar, Developed: XYuriTT

Rumowiska

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Title: Rumowiska
Author(s): Wit Szostak
Release year: 2023
Publisher: Powergraph

Why in Database: Turtles appear in two passages in this book. The first is the comparison to a sea turtle, the second is the use of the term to describe a very slow process.

Larwa rzeki co chwila przystaje, co chwila kwestionuje swoje płynięcie. Czasem przypomina wielką kroplę, odbijającą słońce i zniekształcającą okoliczne krajobrazy. Kiedy trochę podrośnie, ale nadal niewiele, w ziemistym lub piaszczystym terenie zbiera kruszyny gleby, ziarna piasku, oblepia się nimi. Wygląda jak otoczona posypką, jakby płynne błoto przemieszczało się po ziemi. Przypomina panierowanego piaskiem morskiego żółwika, który dopiero wykluł się z jaja, wydobył na powierzchnię i kierowany niezrozumiałym dla siebie instynktem pędzi na krótkich łapkach ku morzu. I jak wiele jego sióstr i braci zapewne nigdy tam nie dotrze.

Rzeki nie muszą pędzić, ale to robią. Transgresja lodowca następuje żółwio, jakby spowalniając cały proces, czekała na uznanie publiczności.

Source: Mossar, Developed: XYuriTT

Psy Pana

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Title: Psy Pana
Author(s): Marcin Świątkowski
Release year: 2023
Publisher: Sine Qua Non

Why in Database: Turtles oappears here only as one mention, a reference to their stereotypical slowness.

Mimo żółwiego tempa kolumny przetykana niewielkimi pagórkami równina zaczęła się fałdować coraz bardziej, tworząc specyficzne, regularne wzgórza, opadające i wznoszące się co kilkaset kroków.

Source: Mossar, Developed: XYuriTT

Diabeł już tu nie mieszka

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Title: Diabeł już tu nie mieszka
Author(s): Mikołaj Maria Manicki
Release year: 2022
Publisher: Publisher IX

Why in Database: The turtle appears in this book only in the form of one mention – a comparison.

Łatwo mówić, że to nie najlepszy moment na nerwy; tak jak podobna sytuacja przyprawiłaby większość osób o zawrót głowy, tak i oni czuli się niczym żółw leżący brzuchem do góry.

Source: Mossar, Developed: XYuriTT

The High Republic: Tales of Light and Life

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Title: The High Republic: Tales of Light and Life
Author(s): Zoraida Córdova, Tessa Gratton, Claudia Gray, Justina Ireland, Lydia Kang, George Mann, Daniel José Older, Cavan Scott, Charles Soule, Alyssa Wong
Release year: 2023
Publisher: Disney–Lucasfilm Press

Why in Database: The turtle appears in this book as a single mention, in the story “Light in the Darkness” by Cavan Scott.

I react without thinking, kicking it back toward Hoi. He drops like a wild thing on the droid, the automaton as helpless as a ditch-turtle on its back. Hoi’s club comes down hard on the unit’s thin neck, the droid letting out an electronic scream as my brother strikes over and over.

Source: Mossar, Developed: XYuriTT

From a Certain Point of View

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Title: From a Certain Point of View
Author(s): Various
Release year: 2017
Publisher: Del Rey

Why in Database: Turtle only appears in this book as a mention of swamp turtles in one sentence, in the story “The Baptist” written by Nnedi Okorafor.

Omi stayed this way for several minutes as other similar dead creatures zipped and walked up and down the hall, some tiny as swamp turtles, others tall as Vodrans, and one as large as a Hutt.

Source: Mossar, Developed: XYuriTT

The Harry Potter Wizarding Almanac

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Title: The Harry Potter Wizarding Almanac
Author(s): J.K. Rowling
Release year: Scholastic Inc.
Publisher: 2023

Why in Database: The turtles appear in this book as a single mention and an image in the transfiguration section. This piece is a reference to the events of third volume.

Third year
TURN A TEAPOT INTO A TORTOISE

MISTAKES TO AVOID: A spout for a tail, a willow-paterned shell, a tortoise that looks more like a turtle

Source: Slavek_8, Developed: XYuriTT

Dragons at Crumbling Castle: And Other Tales

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Title: Dragons at Crumbling Castle: And Other Tales
Author(s): Terry Pratchett
Translation: Maciej Szymański
Release year: 2014 (ENG), 2014 (PL)
Publisher: Doubleday (ENG), Rebis (PL)

Why in Database: A book collecting early short stories by Terry Pratchett, it is not related to Discworld, but it have one story entirely about the turtle. Of course, we paste only small fragments, not the entire story.

The stories in this collection are a selection of those. There are dragons and wizards, councillors and mayors, an adventurous tortoise and a monster in a lake, along with plenty of pointy hats and a few magic spells (a few of which actually do what they are supposed to).

It was the end of March – in fact about quarter to April – when the smell of spring broke into the shed. It drifted across the floor, found its way under a pile of old packing cases, and stopped at a large wooden box. The box smelled of autumn straw and deep in the heart of it something began to stir.
Or rather, someone.
Hercules awoke from dreams of lettuce fields under a midsummer sun. Slowly his wrinkled head poked out of his shell. He sniffed, and yawned, and tried to wriggle deeper into the straw. But it was no use.
Spring again, he thought. Without a doubt. And he tried to get his head round so that he could see his shell, because tortoises have rings on their shells and grow one for every year. Yes, there it was, the new ring, and Hercules felt ready to face the outside world.

Hercules lay on the lawn and stretched his legs. The hands put a small heap of lettuce leaves in front of him, and he chewed them thoughtfully. The land beyond the shed had occupied his dreams during the long winter sleep.
I Wonder What Lies Beyond, he mused, thinking as he often did – in capital letters. There Might be Lettuce. Or Even Buttercups. But secretly he knew that it was not buttercups he was after – he really wanted to travel beyond the shed to see what lay on the other side. He didn’t think of it as escaping from the garden.
But the people did, when they found him gone from the lawn.

A larger shadow detached itself from the rocks. It was Old Mother Greengroan the toad.
‘What is this?’ she asked, staring at Hercules.
‘He’s – he’s a tortoise, madam,’ said Pod.
‘A very brave one,’ said the toad. ‘But why is he here?’
‘I Wanted to See What the World was Like,’ said Hercules.
‘It’s no place for tortoises,’ said Old Mother Greengroan, ‘but you killed the adder, so you can stay if you wish. It’s a big place, bigger than a garden, and a lot happens, and there might be other adders.’

Author: XYuriTT