This attractive area has several stops with statues of Franklin the Turtle and other characters from Paulette Bourgeois' childrens books.
The garden is located on Centre Island and there is no charge. The garden has a lot of competition with the nearby playground and spray park.
The City's website (
visit link) informs us:
"An interactive garden for kids and families on Centre Island. The Franklin Children's Garden is inspired by Franklin the Turtle, the celebrated series of books written by Paulette Bourgeois, illustrated by Brenda Clark and published by Kids Can Press: a Corus Entertainment Company. The garden is divided into six sections where children can enjoy gardening, storytelling, and visits with seven child-accessible sculptures from the Franklin the Turtle series.
Recreation Facilities:
Gardens, Storytelling amphitheatre, treehouse, pond for wildlife viewing.
How to get there:
Take the Centre Island ferry from the ferrydocks. Walk towards Centre Island. The garden is located behind the Toronto Island Nature School.
Tours and Activities
Daily tours of the Franklin Children's Garden and Junior Sprout Gardening activities are available for summer.
Group tours and activities information are available by emailing dbooth@toronto.ca
Unilever Snail Trail
The Unilever Snail Trail is a key lookout point to see the wetland wonders of Turtle Pond. Children delight as they explore its winding trail and flower-filled meadow of plants alive with butterflies and other critters.
TD Storybook Place
This section of the Franklin's Children's Garden is a setting for storytelling and performing arts outdoors to children in a unique amphitheatre setting."
Wikipedia (
visit link) informs us about Bourgeois:
"Paulette Bourgeois, CM (born July 20, 1951) is best known for creating Franklin the Turtle, the character who appears in picture books illustrated by Toronto native Brenda Clark. The books have sold more than 60 million copies around the world and have been translated into 38 languages. An animated television series, merchandise, DVDs and full-feature movies are based on the character...
After the birth of her first child, Natalie, she decided to write a children's book. Inspired by the Season 7 episode of M*A*S*H, C*A*V*E, where Hawkeye Pierce admits that he is claustrophobic and refuses to go into a cave, "If I were a turtle I would be afraid of my own shell", he said. After Franklin in the Dark was illustrated by Brenda Clark and published in 1986.[3]
She is also the author of Changes in You and Me, books about adolescence, the Oma's Quilt was developed as a short film by the National Film Board of Canada, Big Sarah's Little Boots and more. Paulette has also written dozens of non fiction books for children including the Amazing series, the In My Neighbourhood series, The Sun, and The Moon. She has been a columnist for Homemaker's Magazine, written for Canadian Living, Chatelaine and Today's Parent and she provided the concept and initial research for "The Bee Talker" which aired on CBC TV's The Nature of Things. She has written three episodes of the TV documentary series, Creepy Canada, and has just finished writing a full-length feature film, Loving Mrs. Twiggy.
She has two adult children, Natalie and Gordon and lives in Toronto, ON...
In 2003, she became a Member of the Order of Canada[4] and in 2007, she received an Honourary Doctor of Laws from her alma mater, the University of Western Ontario, and an Award of Merit from the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists...
Selected works
On Your Mark, Get Set ...: All About the Olympics Then and Now (1987)
The Amazing Apple Book (1987)
The Amazing Paper Books (1989)
Starting with Space: The Sun (1995)
Starting with Space: The Moon (1995)
Oma's Quilt (2001)"