Connie S. Green, age 8, of Wichita, Kansas, for her question:

Are turtles born with shells?

Yes, they are, though for a few days their baby shells may be rather soft. All turtles hatch from soft roundish white eggs. The mother turtle lays perhaps 20 of them in an earthy hollow. If she is one of the big sea going turtles, she lays 200 eggs in the warm wet sand. Turtles are not very good mothers, for they do not stand by to tend their eggs. They go away and leave them to hatch by themselves in the warm earth.

Chances are, the unborn babes stay in their soft eggs all summer. This gives them plenty of time to develop. When they hatch, they look like mini copies of their mother. And they always come forth in their proper little turtle shells.