Celebrity tortoise, Albert, and his owner, Ian Brown, are back with another wonderful instalment of the Albert Tortoise picture-book series, published by Graffeg and with wonderful illustrations, yet again, by illustrator Eoin Clark.
This is the fifth book in the Albert Tortoise series, which began with Albert Upside Down in 2021. In keeping with earlier books in the series, this book focuses on themes of friendship and discovering the wonders of nature and features the usual fabulous cast of garden creatures who, in what is probably my favourite image in the book, attempt to cheer up Albert when his new friend in the garden pond has disappeared. But, of course, like the other books in the series, there is a happy ending for Albert.
Brown and Clarke once again find ways to keep this series fresh by introducing a new environment - the garden pond - and some new creatures, as well as the insight into Albert's imagination that is front and centre in Albert Supersize - an earlier book in the series, which is a must for any dinosaur fans out there!
What is particularly striking in Clarke's illustrations is his ability to illustrate both land and under-water environments in the same image, and from different perspectives, such as this wonderful image of Albert's new pond friend looking up at Albert and co.
As a tortoise owner, the most important thing for me is the tortoise safety angle! Right at the beginning of the book, Albert acknowledges the danger of deep water to tortoises and the fact file at the back of the book (another great feature of this series) gives further information on tortoises' relationship with water, as well as some interesting facts about frogs.
Albert and the Pond has already been causing a stir on tortoise Twitter. My tortoise, Prince Toby (who is modelling his copy in the photographs above), has already been enjoying Albert's new adventure, as have several of his tortoise friends. And the good news for Albert fans is that there are more Albert books to come, starting with Albert and His Friends, which will be released in August 2023. As Prince Toby would say: hurrah!
If you want to find out more about Albert, you can read my blog post on the Albert Tortoise series here and my interview with his owner and author Ian Brown here.
You can visit Albert's website here