An informative, engaging account of the life and migration of a loggerhead turtle who came to be known as Yoshi began with her hatching on an Australian beach. After five years of swimming among other sea creatures, from sea anemones to whale sharks, and drifting on algae rafts, she arrived at Africa’s southern point. There she became trapped in a net until rescued and cared for by a Japanese fisherman who later delivered her to a Cape Town aquarium. After 20 years in the aquarium, the staff developed a training program to enable Yoshi to gain the strength and stamina needed for ocean life. Outfitted with a tracking device, she was released back into her natural habitat. Over the next two years Yoshi covered 22,998 miles, eventually returning to the Australian beach of her hatching where she laid a clutch of eggs. Yoshi’s aquatic world is visually captured in exquisite illustrations of life beneath the ocean’s surface as well as conveying her herculean journey with the effective use of horizontal panels and focused spot art. (Ages 5-8)

In this picture book that is both heartwarming and exciting, join Yoshi, a sea turtle, on her remarkable journey as she swims farther than any animal in recorded history--23,000 miles!--to return to the beach where she first hatched, to lay her own eggs.

Inside every loggerhead turtle is genius: the ability to find their first home, no matter how far away. Follow one, from her birth on a beach in Australia...to her trip across an ocean filled with sharks and seahorses and much more...to her rescue from a net by a fisherman, who names her Yoshi...to her rehabilitation at an aquarium...to her record-breaking swim across the Indian Ocean to the beach on which she hatched, to lay her eggs.

Written by Lynne Cox, also a record-breaking swimmer, here is the true story of a sea turtle who swam the longest distance of any animal in recorded history.