Among the books displayed by ARPress at the Frankfurter Buchmesse in Frankfurt, Germany, from October 15 to 19, 2025, Turtletoes: Following the Steps of an Angel by Michael Steven Purles stood out quietly amid the buzz of the world’s largest publishing event. The fair, in its 77th edition, felt like a live pulse of the book-world: five days where ideas, culture, commerce, discovery and connection all collided in one place.
This year, the fair added several new layers of energy. For starters, the Guest of Honour was the Philippines, presenting under the theme “The imagination peoples the air.” That meant a special pavilion, a series of cultural and literary events highlighting Filipino voices and storytelling traditions.
Also, the fair leaned hard into cross-media formats: the newly emphasized “Book-to-Screen Day” on October 17 signalled that publishers and creatives are not just thinking print, but film, TV and streaming. For example, you could stroll from a rights negotiation meeting straight into a panel about turning a novel into a streaming series, then glance over to an audio zone where narrators and audiobook tech were on show.
The public programme (open to all from Friday onward) featured a dizzying range of stages: manga, comics, cosplay and games got serious space this year; there was a “Centre Stage” in Hall 4.1 for cultural and political talks (featuring big names like a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and ex-NATO Secretary General) and a “Reading Zone of Independent Publishers” where up-and-coming voices were amplified. Even the logistics showed how the fair is living up to its global claims: over 4,000 exhibitors from across the world, and the event framed as “the defining fair for the print and digital content business.”
The opening hours show the rhythm: trade visitors got access from 15-18 October, while the general public could join in on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. What this means in practical terms: imagine showing up early in the week for rights talks or author meet-ups; imagine a Saturday afternoon where the booths flood with families, manga fans in cosplay, readers browsing new titles, authors signing, coffee in hand. Meanwhile behind the scenes, deals are being made, translation contracts drawn up, creators from around the world comparing notes. The venue itself, Messe Frankfurt, becomes a micro-city of publishing, buzzing with voices, booths, panels, unexpected side-conversations in hallways.
For a book like Turtletoes: Following the Steps of an Angel by Michael Steven Purles, this is fertile ground. In a setting where major genre titles can dominate the spotlights, the special, quieter books still find their nook, but now with the benefit of tremendous visibility. The broader themes of fair, cross-media adaptation, international rights, younger reader engagement, creative-tech intersections, mean that even a book whose focus is more contemplative, or niche can ride the wave of attention simply by showing up in the right context.
Turtletoes: Following the Steps of an Angel is a deeply moving memoir that tells the story of a young woman named Tracy Purles, born with congenital heart disease and intellectual disability, and her father’s journey of love, growth, and spiritual insight. The book reflects how Tracy’s life—though marked by physical and cognitive challenges—became a profound source of transformation for her family and for her father, Michael Steven Purles.
It is not a tale of tragedy, but one of discovery: discovering meaning, faith, gratitude, and the beauty of a life lived differently yet fully. The title, Turtletoes, evokes gentleness and a sense of careful steps—fitting for someone navigating the world with extra burdens yet deeply rich inner life.
The narrative begins with Tracy’s diagnosis and her unique path through life. Born with birth defects that required her to contend with more obstacles than most, Tracy strove to “be like everyone else.” Through hospitalizations, physical limitations, intellectual hurdles, and the daily discipline of faith and hope, she showed her father—and the readers—the profound strength of a spirit unbroken by circumstance. As the Booktopia description notes, “Tracy endured being different, physical, and mental challenges to become a life-light for her family and friends. Her faith in God, determination to ‘be like everyone else,’ resilience, and enjoyment of life’s little pleasures blessed the lives of her family and many others throughout her 20 years of life.”
In Turtletoes: Following the Steps of an Angel, Michael Steven Purles offers more than autobiography—he offers a lens through which we might view value, contribution, love, and faith anew. Tracy’s life, while brief and marked by challenges, becomes a story of expanding influence: an influence that shaped her father’s heart, impacted family and friends, and points readers toward what matters beyond ability and achievement.
For anyone seeking a story of hope, faith, and the unexpected ways life teaches us, this book is a gentle companion. It invites us to walk alongside someone who never gave up, and in so doing, learn how to step more fully into life ourselves.
This year’s Frankfurter Buchmesse felt alive with possibility. The cultural dimension (Philippines guest of honour), the expanded public access, the varied programming (from comics to film-industry panels), the global-rights stage, all of that created a backdrop where a book doesn’t just have to be good, it has to connect. And walking among the stalls, one could almost sense the collision of story and technology, tradition and innovation, local voices and global echo.
So, when someone notices Turtletoes: Following the Steps of an Angel by Michael Steven Purles in ARPress’s display, maybe on a table near the broader non-fiction section, maybe in a quiet corner of a genre bay, they’re not just seeing a book. They’re seeing it in a moment: a moment of publishing’s future meeting its roots; a story offered amid thousands of others, inviting a reader to pause, to pick it up, to ask “what might this one say to me?” And perhaps that is why books like this matter even more in a fair like this, because among the big lights and big deals, there’s still space for the voice that whispers rather than shouts, for the reader who wanders, for the author who offers something earnest.
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