Snail and Turtle are friends by Stephen Michael King

Scholastic, 2014. ISBN: 9781743620236
Despite their differences, snail and turtle are friends who do almost everything together. From their shared activities including walking, running, hiding and being quiet together, they nonetheless enjoy different foods, parts of the day and creative styles. Although they prefer to go about things in different ways, they accept one another's choices and enjoy one another's company without question and, at the end of the day retreat to their shells, side by side, to sleep. Theirs is an almost perfect friendship, lived in harmony and based on mutual trust and respect.
Stephen Michael King's illustrations utilise his easily identifiable cartoon like style with the colour palette containing predominantly earthy shades of the garden plants and water. On the cover and throughout the book is a shiny 'trail' showing where the snail has travelled. Having already shared the book with a number of classes, the children love following the path and tracing the trail with their fingers.
This is a joyous and gentle story, simply showing the importance of people who don't have to be exactly like us to be true friends. Junior primary teachers will find this title to be a useful discussion starter about friendship and individual differences.
Jo Schenkel