Armando and La Baula: The Story of a Boy, a Beach, and a Turtle Named Bella

Armando is an eight year old Costa Rican boy with a lively imagination who lives in Playa Real, a secluded beach on the northern Pacific coast of his country. Though Armando is a made-up boy, Playa Real is a real place. It has everything a boy could want, including Cave Island, a big rock island that resembles the head of a giant and is rumored to harbor a pirate’s treasure. But Armando’s idyllic beach life changes dramatically on the night of his ninth birthday when he encounters Bella, a nesting leatherback turtle—the “Baula” of the title. Armando learns from Bella how she and her fellow turtles are facing extinction because of the senseless behavior of greedy and polluting humans. Armando and La Baula is both a cautionary ecological tale and a celebration of a magical place. And it is also the story of how a memorable boy uses his imagination to solve the moral dilemma of keeping two promises that seem impossibly at odds: one to his father and one to Bella, the Baula.