Madeline N.

Slower Than the Rest

In the story Slower Than the rest, a boy named Leo finds a turtle on the highway. This turtle is named Charlie. Charlie helps Leo through school.

Leo has always been slow in school. He has been slow in math,  slow in reading, and slow in anything that involved school. School is especially hard because he didn't have any friends. However, when he finds Charlie, he was happy and grateful.

In the book, it says” Charlie took care Leo’s happiness.” I think this means that anytime Leo was around Charlie, he felt happy. In the book it says “then he took off like no one told him how slow we was supposed to be.” This is a big quote in the book because Leo is very slow in school. Turtles are supposed to be slow but Charlie is as fast or slow as he wants. It's this that inspires Leo a lot.

One day, Leo takes Charlie to school for prevent forest fires week. Everyone in his class is making a presentation. In Leo's presentation, he use Charlie as an example of things that can't escape from forest fires. Fast animals like deer can escape, Leo said. By the time Leo's presentation finished, everyone hated  forest fires and loved turtles. Leo's teacher had tears in her eyes.” I think this is because since Leo’s and slow in school, he had such a great presentation. The teacher is so happy that is finally moving up.

At the end of the day in the gymnasium, the principal spoke and they announced the award for the best presentation and Leo won. At the end of the book it says” for once in his life Leo felt fast.”

For these reasons, I think Charlie is the thing that helpsLeo through school.