45 pages • 1 hour read
Naomi Shihab NyeThe Turtle of Oman
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 8-14Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 8 Summary: “Know Your Michigan Turtles”
Aref tells his mother about his worries that his cousins will not take good care of their cat. This is one of many thoughts he has about bad things that might happen while he is gone. He shifts his focus to the brochures of Michigan that his parents bought for him. He is excited to see Know Your Michigan Turtles among them, and he packs that one. Then he decides to go for a bike ride. At the end of an alley, he looks out over the valley and tries to make sure that he will remember this moment. He wishes that there were a single day on which everything moved backward, “as a sort of time experiment changing the view” (76). He thinks about how English script runs left to right while Arabic script runs right to left. He wonders if he will feel backward in Michigan. On his way home, he sees Ummi Salwa. She blesses his travels and gives him a pack of tangerines and a box of chocolates. Aref kisses her hand and thanks her, then returns home.
Chapter 9 Summary: “Cat Without a Map”
Aref’s mother reminds him that the Sultan Qaboos went away for school to England and then came home. She says that many Omani people leave and then return. Aref turns his attention to Mish-Mish again and asks if cats have good memories. His mom relays a story about a cat in Florida that walked 200 miles to get home. She adds that their cat will like Aref’s cousins, but this idea upsets him. She follows Aref to his room, where he apologizes. She reminds him to pack. They talk about the journey, and Aref is excited to fly on a plane, though he does not admit this. He tells her that he doesn’t think he will like it in Michigan, then thinks that he likes the fact that the English word “no” sounds more decisive than its Arabic counterpart, “la” (90).
Chapter 10 Summary: “Get Me Out of Here”
Aref puts several items in his suitcase, contemplating the Americans that he has met at his international school. He wonders why he isn’t excited to be welcomed into a new country himself. He takes a nap and wakes up when Sidi is on his way over. When Sidi arrives, he asks Aref how the packing is going, and Aref admits that it is difficult. He wishes that he could pack his friends, his school, and other parts of his life. Sidi greets Aref’s mom and suggests that he and Aref leave.
Chapter 11 Summary: “Peace to All Sardines”
Sidi and Aref drive to the beach. Sidi apologizes for the fact that Aref is having a difficult day. He greets everyone as they walk down the beach and wishes them peace. He looks at Aref and suggests that it would be scary to be sardines, with fishermen trying to catch them in their nets. Aref asks if they can visit Sultan Qaboos, whom he once saw from afar at a Royal Oman Symphony Orchestra performance. Sidi replies that they would have to be invited, then laughs and promises not to take Aref’s cousins to see the sultan.
Chapter 12 Summary: “Looking”
As they walk along the beach, Aref notes that there must be turtles in the ocean that they can’t see. Sidi tells him that long ago, people would attach candles to turtles and let them roam around. Aref imagines this and thinks that it would be amazing. Sidi turns to look at something they walk past, and Aref does, too. Sidi always tries to see things from many different perspectives. Aref has a list of all the birds one might see, as well as the trash left from humans. Aref writes his name and Sidi’s in the sand. He says that he doesn’t understand why he can’t stay in Oman. Sidi responds that his parents would miss him, but Aref thinks that all they like to do is study.
Chapter 13 Summary: “Big Day”
Sidi suggests that Aref try to collect “special treasures” (113). Aref appreciates that Sidi changed the subject from Aref’s parents even as he resents that his grandfather has left his complaint about their study habits unaddressed. Sidi mentions the message that he and Aref once put in a bottle, wondering what happened to it. He uses the permanent marker he keeps in his pocket to draw a smiley face on a stone and hands the stone to Aref. Sidi picks up another stone, saying that today is its “big day” (115) because no one has looked at this particular stone for three centuries. Aref laughs at the theory. The old man suggests that the stones will remind Aref to come back to Muscat. Aref pockets this stone too. He wonders what defines a home and concludes that a home is a place where someone automatically feels comfortable.
Chapter 14 Summary: “Faces”
Aref hates leaving the beach. He and Sidi get roasted almonds. Later that night, Aref’s mother questions his decision to pack rocks.
Chapters 8-14 Analysis
In these chapters, The Difficulty of Leaving Home becomes more prominent as Aref wrestles with the reality of leaving Oman and worries about what his life will be like in Michigan. Even though he attends an international school with children from all over the world, Aref now feels that he is the one who is different. This thought escalates into a deeper concern that he will feel “backward” (77) in Michigan, highlighting his dislike of being perceived as strange or unusual. His mother’s attempt at comforting him by comparing him to Sultan Qaboos is designed to help him understand that his time away from Oman is only temporary, for as she tells him, the sultan “went to England […] and then he came home” (82). This scene stresses the importance of being open to new experiences, but at this point, Aref still has difficulty reconciling this idea with his lingering reluctance to leave Oman. However, despite his hesitancy, these chapters emphasize The Importance of Travel, especially as Sidi uses their various outings to remind the boy that journeys to new places are neither permanent nor bad. Instead, he strives to teach his grandson that traveling can be a way of gaining valuable life experience.
Despite the support of his family, Aref spends time wondering, “What makes a place your own? What makes a home a home?” (116). His home in Muscat is always settled, and he is constantly surrounded by his family, friends, and neighbors. In this set of chapters, Aref must contend with the necessity of leaving a place that has become such a large part of his identity. To salve his anxieties, he creates a broader definition of “home,” concluding that home is a place where “you felt you could knock on any door and the people inside might know some of the same things you knew or welcome you in—just because you all belonged there” (117). In Oman, he easily feels a sense of a shared history because he has known no other place. However, his family members try to emphasize that new experiences can complement and expand his understanding of home.
As Aref spends more time with Sidi, their joint adventures become critical to his character development, as Sidi helps him to emotionally prepare to leave by exposing him to new settings on a small scale in preparation for adapting on a larger scale. Sidi’s whimsical wisdom also introduces the importance of Grandparents’ Stories and Experiences. Sidi shares many stories with Aref, and his grandson loves listening to them. The story about the turtles who have candles on their backs is particularly interesting to Aref, especially as Sidi paints a mental picture of how “wandering turtles became roving lamps carrying little lights around” (41). Aref is immediately caught up in the magic of this vision, and he returns to it as something that he can’t quite believe, but he believes it because Sidi told him about it. With this story and the appearance of the Know Your Michigan Turtles pamphlet, turtles become a symbol of similarity and connection between past and present, and between one country and another. Aref’s affection for turtles is such that even receiving the pamphlet makes him go “a little crazy in a happy way” (72), and his decision to pack the pamphlet reflects his desire to find a version of this happiness in Michigan as well. Among the items that Aref’s parents purchased for him to prepare for Michigan, the turtle pamphlet is the only one that excites him, foreshadowing the fact that Aref’s understanding of turtles as migrants will help him to accept his own journey to the US.
Related Titles
By Naomi Shihab Nye
