The fastest tortoise in town by Howard Calvert, illustrated by Karen Obuhanych

The story begins with Barbara Hendricks, just an ordinary leopard tortoise, starting in big-eyed horror as her owner, a brown-skinned girl with messy black hair, creates an encouraging banner. Because she, Barbara, has... joined a race! She's nervous, scared, and worried. Lorraine, her best friend and owner, helps her train and encourages her to keep going, no matter how anxious she is, while still being understanding if she wants to quit.

Finally, the big day comes and Barbara makes it to the track, only to face the speediest creatures she's ever seen: A slow loris, walrus, snail, and a sloth! She's never going to be able to beat them! However, she keeps putting one foot in the front of the other, going faster and faster, until she's running like the breeze! And she wins! She can't believe it! In the flush of her victory, she happily agrees to race a hair and the story ends with her and the rabbit lined up on the track, "After all, what do I have to lose?"

The art is cute and the twist of the story is funny, but a bit confusing. Barbara has basically won by a fluke - both in being matched to creatures that are supposedly slow (a walrus can actually run as fast as a human on land for example) and with the other racers being distracted and running into various issues on the track. If you have kids who can handle an open-ended story, you could certainly have lots of interesting discussions - is Barbara actually running super fast or does she just feel like it? Who will win when she races the hare? How will she feel about it? Is one week of training really a lot of effort?

Verdict: Bright, bold colors and a light, funny story, albeit with a confusing ending, will make this a nice addition to library collections and fable and folktale-based storytimes.

ISBN: 9781536228359; Published April 2023 by Candlewick; Review copy provided by publisher; Donated to the library