The Secret Life of a Sea Turtle

Written by Maddalena Bearzi, Illustrated by Alex Boersma

Follow the captivating yet perilous life of one sea turtle in this dazzling nonfiction tale by the co-founder of the Ocean Conservation Society.

On a beach at the Ría Lagartos nature reserve in Mexico, a sea turtle is born.

Newly hatched into a big world, she breaks out of an egg buried in the sand. Now, her journey begins. To reach the ocean she must avoid predatory opossums, crabs, and raccoons -- many of her siblings will not make it. But our sea turtle does, and when she finally dives beneath the blue sea, she’ll travel for thousands of miles on a beautiful and pulse-pounding adventure.

Brilliant, informative, and compelling, The Secret Life of a Sea Turtle is a sweeping nonfiction tale following one turtle’s extraordinary life from hatchling to adulthood.

“Mesmerizing and insightful” —Kirkus

Published by Roaring Brook Press, 2025

Praise for The Secret Life of a Sea Turtle

Junior Library Guild, Gold Standard Selection

"Boersma’s stunning, intimate illustrations seamlessly complement the text, from a cutaway view of the nest to a gorgeous bird’s-eye view of unsuspecting baby turtles making sand trails in the shadow cast by the wing of an avian hunter. She captures her subjects’ every emotion: determination on the faces of hatchlings propelling themselves from the nest, fear in the eyes of an unlucky youngster grabbed by a crab. Sweeping undersea scenes, including maps of ocean currents on the sea turtle’s journey, vividly illustrate the life of this wondrous creature." —Kirkus, starred review

“In this precious new book, Maddalena Bearzi uses her lifetime of knowledge gleaned from her research in oceans and along coasts and combines it with her native warmth and empathy to introduce our beloved children to some of our most wondrous ocean creatures.” —Carl Safina, New York Times bestselling author of Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel