‘Moley and the Mysterious Sea Turtles’ is a book about a toy mole, who goes on a holiday from England to Florida with his adoptive family.

He is worried about friends and responsibilities he’s left behind, but soon discovers that the sandy shores of Florida are also full of adventures and even dangers. He meets many local animals, who are not necessarily always friendly, and needs to find his way through the challenges of a new place.

The story is told beautifully and with descriptive language, great humour and lovely (and wise) life lessons and advice interwoven throughout. Children of all ages will take something different from it, enjoying the adventures and the characters, while learning useful lessons about difficult situations, without realising it. Adults will be delighted with its rich language, subtle literary references, and tongue-in-cheek humour.

Moley and the Mysterious Sea Turtles is the second book in the A Mole Like No Other series featuring a teddy mole that had been kept in a box for years by his owners and finds newfound freedom when he becomes the cherished companion of Ashley, a young boy who treats him with care and affection.

Moley is a special teddy mole as he can think, walk, talk, and jump, just not when others are watching, just like Ashely’s other toys. In this second book, Moley is off on holiday with Ashley and his family to Florida.

From his English town to the shores of Florida, Moley is finding out how different life in another country is, alongside worrying about his responsibilities and his friends back home whom he misses.

Moley and the Mysterious Sea Turtles is infused with excitement and charm. I love Moley, he’s an endearing, compassionate, and kind teddy. The book itself is quite long and has a vast amount of text so not a book you could read in one sitting. It contains plenty of black-and-white pencil-drawn illustrations which offer a nostalgic nod to classic children’s literature, however, I would have loved for there to be a splash of vibrant colours on the pages.

Overall, the book is really quite beautiful. The plot is calming and adventurous and I am looking forward to seeing what Moley and Ashely get up to next.

Julia B. Grantham lives in the South of England with her husband, son, two cats, Moley, Owlie and all the other toys that make their appearance in this book; with ducks and pigeons in the garden, chickens across the road, as well as rabbits, squirrels, pheasants and deer, who visit often and hope also to make it into a book one day soon.

Julia is a medical doctor and a training consultant, but books are her passion. She is a Harry Potter fanatic, an Ambassador for the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation, a writer and illustrator of Jane Austen-inspired travel fiction, and now – an author.