By Julie Lasky, NYTimes, Published: August 15, 2012
Two years ago, the children’s-book author and illustrator Jan Brett and
her husband, Joseph Hearne, a bassist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra,
installed a turtle pond on the grounds of their two-acre home in Norwell, Mass.
It was inspired by her plan to write a book about an Eastern box turtle with
wildflowers and ferns sprouting from its shell. In “Mossy,” due out next month
(G. P. Putnam’s Sons; $17.99), the turtle spends some unhappy months on display
at a natural-history museum until a penitent biologist restores it to its
habitat.
Ms. Brett, 62, waited and waited for a turtle to move into her pond.
Now, mere weeks before the book’s publication, one is said to be living there.
A suspicious reporter had questions, which Ms. Brett answered good-naturedly by
phone.
You’ve done books about hedgehogs. You’ve done books about chickens.
You’ve even done books about gingerbread babies. How did you get started on
turtles?
We were at our summer place dangling our heels into the lake at the end
of our dock, when I looked down and saw what looked like waterweeds in the
shape of a turtle. It rose out of the water. It was a snapper turtle growing
all these waterweeds on its back. So I got the idea: what about a book about a
turtle that grows a garden on its back? But then I thought it needed a
terrestrial turtle. The turtle in my pond is an Eastern painted turtle, which
is aquatic.
Before we talk about your turtle, can we discuss the pond?
We had it made specifically for turtles and for the book. We made it
quite deep, so they could hibernate there, below the frost line. We had basking
rocks made that are a little above the pond surface.
Basking rocks?
Even though aquatic turtles live in water, they need to haul out —
that’s the expression used — and dry their shells.
Then what happened?
We knew we were on the right track when we got a giant bullfrog. That
was last year. This year, we have tadpoles.
So when did this alleged turtle show up?
In June. We have wetlands beyond the house. I was afraid turtles
wouldn’t come because they were enamored of those ponds. Finally, one moved in.
I think the sound of the bullfrogs did it. In the Northeast, so many ponds form
in the spring, but then they dry up in the summer. When the pond dries up,
tadpoles aren’t able to survive.
Are you saying that turtles are reassured by the sound of bullfrogs
because they know they’ll find a pond deep enough to remain in year-round?
That’s my theory. A herpetologist following an Eastern box turtle
noticed that, in very dry weather, it would tap its foot on the ground, and
then earthworms, which are its food, would rise to the surface thinking it was
raindrops. When I read that, I was incredulous, but if you’re a turtle or any
kind of animal on the ground, it’s your survival. Nature is complex.
You’re sure you didn’t just pick up a turtle at a pet store?
I thought about it. But, no, there was no pet-shop intervention. You
don’t know what kind of disease might appear. I also thought of buying one from
the Internet, but if you take a turtle and put it in a pond, it will crawl off
and go where it wants to go.
Is it possible that an Eastern box turtle like Mossy will find its way
to the pond?
I had been hoping, and it still might happen. Eastern box turtles are
constantly on the move in ponds and rivers, where their food source is. They
browse. So I planted strawberries and lingonberries and different flowers
around the pond to attract them. There’s lobelia, joe-pye weeds, cattails,
waterlilies, tons of ferns. I even planted squash.
You’ve owned some of the animals that served as models for the
characters in your books. Hedgehogs and chickens spring to mind. And now you
have a turtle. Have you considered more traditional pets for inspiration?
I’ve done a lot of bear books, and that’s because it’s easy to put the
features of a human being on a bear: bears can stand up, and they have eyes in
the front of their head. It’s the reason I don’t do many reptiles in my books.
I’m doing a chicken Cinderella at the moment. Chickens have very expressive
body language.
Would you recommend other people install turtle ponds?
I would. And my biggest recommendation is to have two big rocks where
you can invite someone over and sit. We have breakfast at the pond every
morning, with fresh eggs from the chickens. I cook them up, and I make my own
bread. The turtle doesn’t usually come out at that time. She comes up at about
9. I say “she,” but I don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl.
What do you look at from your perch?
So many different kinds of dragonflies and damselflies. I’ve identified
three different kinds, but don’t ask me what they are. The cardinal flowers are
my favorite because hummingbirds come to them. We have black-eyed daisies and,
in fall, New England asters, which reseed themselves. The pond turns purple
around the edges. There are tons of birds, and they bring some of the seeds, I
assume. Maybe a bird book will come of it.
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