Turtle in Paradise: The Soundtrack

I chose to create a CD soundtrack, imagining that Turtle in Paradise was turned into a movie based on the book.  The songs were carefully chosen based on a number of factors.  First, Jennifer Holm mentions some songs outright, such as On the Good Ship Lollipop, or partially, when she entitles one of her chapters Can You Spare a Nickel, Pal?  Holm makes quite a few pop culture references:  Shirley Temple, the radio programs Little Orphan Annie, The Shadow, and Terry and the Pirates.  I was able to find the theme songs from each of those programs, and the Shirley Temple song On the Good Ship Lollipop was listed with some of the lyrics in the book.  Holm mentioned the Disney cartoon The Three Little Pigs, which is famous for the song Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?  Since this story is set right in the midst of The Great Depression, two famous songs from that period were added: Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? and Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries.  Holm mentions the phrase "Easy Street" quite often, which made me think of the song with the same name from the Broadway show Annie.  To round out the CD, I chose a song about The Keys, and a song sung in the 1940s movie To Have and Have Not, based on an Ernest Hemingway book.

As far as the teacher's perspective, if I assigned this project to my students, it would clearly reveal whether the student read the book thoroughly, or just picked songs about turtles and paradise.  It would be very easy to determine who spent time truly"diving in" to the book, and who may have only skimmed it.

By doing this project, it made me revisit what I had already read.  I had seedlings of ideas for the project, but leafing through the book reminded me about topics such as The Three Little Pigs, which I had forgotten.  Getting immersed in this assignment gave me a stronger feel and flavor for the time period. 

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