WHOSE TURTLE?

Frankly speaking, it's Wally's turtle (Buddy) but he gives him to sister Rachel (who renames him Quertz) when she breaks her arm. Rachel decides having a cast is like. . . having a shell, but as the weeks drag on even Quertz' companionship cannot ease her restlessness, and she counts the clays to the end of her confinement. Arm freed, she realizes that Quertz' shell is a part of him, that living in a bowl is his disability, comparable to her jail dream the night before; Rachel celebrates her freedom by giving Quertz his. Martha Alexander's pencil-and-wash drawings soft-focus on a summery scene, but the extended parallel between girl and turtle never opens up into anything.