The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Their Favorite Books

What is happiness? Is it love, success, the achievement of dreams, and spiritual fulfillment? Or is it a bowl of sugary cereal, pj’s and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles opening credits on a Saturday morning? Ask a child of the 80s and 90s, and they just might say the latter. They also might yell, “Turtle power!”

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are a band of four brothers, named after Italian Renaissance painters and trained in the art of ninjutsu to fight crime. They’re walking, talking, butt-kicking mutated turtles raised in the sewers of Manhattan by their sensei, Splinter, an anthropomorphic rat with Japanese sensibilities. With the highly anticipated TMNT movie coming out in a few days, we’ve got the heroes in the half-shell on the brain. Here’s what we imagine each of their favorite books to be:

Leonardo (leads)
Masked in blue and wielding two katanas, Leonardo is the leader and the most obedient to Splinter. Leonardo’s favorite books are:

The Way of the Samurai, by Inazo Nitobe
It’s about living by a code of honor and cultivating loyalty, courage, and obedience, values that contribute to Leonardo’s credo.
The Three Musketeers, by Alexandre Dumas
Leo loves the duels, the loyalty, and the epic bromance between the fearsome foursome.
King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, by Roger Lancelyn Green
Leo is fascinated by these medieval tales of chivalry, gallantry, and swords. He’s also enthralled by one sword in particular: King Arthur’s Excalibur.
The Book of Ninja, by Antony Cummins and Yoshie Minami
This book covers the history of ninjas, but Leo loves it for more practical reasons: it’s instructive on the arts of espionage, tactical planning, night raids, mission strategies—all the things ninjas need to defeat their enemies.

Michelangelo (party dude).
He’s the easy-going prankster in the orange mask who talks like a surfer and wields nunchakus. Mikey thinks these books are cowabunga:

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, by Hunter S. Thompson
Come on. The kids might not know it, but we all know Michelangelo likes to party. He’s obviously the Scooby-Doo of the gang.
The Pizza City, by Peter Genovese
The Turtle likes his pizza! As a born and raised New Yorker, Mikey takes the history, origins, and story of the New York slice seriously.
God Bless You Mr. Rosewater, by Kurt Vonnegut
Michelangelo’s sense of humor is as big as his heart, so Vonnegut’s novel about a loony, wealthy philanthropist is one of his favorites.
The Princess Bride, by William Goldman
Swashbuckling pirate heroes, giants, conniving Sicilians, masochistic Counts, and one absolute babe of a princess, and it’s laugh-out-loud funny. All of Michelangelo’s favorite things.
The Agony and the Ecstasy, by Irving Stone
A gift from his sensei, Splinter, this is the only serious book on Michelangelo’s shelf.  He loves this novel about his namesake Michelangelo Buonarroti, the Renaissance man behind the Sistine Chapel.

Raphael  (cool but crude)
The dagger-dueling, red-masked rebel of the group, Raphael is hot-headed and sarcastic but also fiercely loyal to his family. His favorite reads:
Animal Farm, by George Orwell
Raphael considers this book research into anthropomorphic animals who are bad guys. This book accounts for Raphael’s deep mistrust of talking pig Bebop.
The Mole People, by Jennifer Toth
Always on guard against intruders, Raphael finds Toth’s account of the subterranean homeless population of New York City enlightening.  He likes to know a bit about the other people roaming around New York City’s underground maze.
Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
Angst-ridden Raphael relates to Holden’s disappointment in adults and his desire to die for a noble cause and to protect children.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
It’s one of the few books that can make Raphael laugh, and it’s about following your own moral code when the world around you is being stupid.

Donatello (does machines)
He’s a purple-masked whiz with the bo staff, and a whiz at everything else too. Donatello’s the inventor/engineer/scientific genius who prefers to use brains over brawn. On his bookshelf:
Einstein’s Dreams, by Alan Lightman
A fictional exploration into the dreams of young Albert Einstein while he works on his theory of relativity. This book weaves together philosophy and science in a way that’s right up Donatello’s alley.
Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, by Haruki Murakami
This bizarre, fantastical, and compelling sci-fi classic describes Tokyo’s sewer-dwelling reptilian monsters. Donatello finds this ironically amusing.
Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
The themes of censorship and the importance of books and dissenting ideas speak to Donatello’s intellectual side. It reminds him to use force for good, not to oppress or dominate others.
The Iron Man comic series, created by Stan Lee
These comic books were a gift from his brothers, who see Donatello as their own Tony Stark: genius, inventor, engineer ,and hero. Donatello wouldn’t mind being a ladies’ man like Tony Stark, too.

Who’s your favorite Ninja Turtle and what book would you give him?