Readers will gobble up Karr's hilarious novel of a boy who resolves to walk 1000 turkeys from the Show-Me state to Denver, Colorado. Simon, who's 15 and newly graduated from the thrid grade, may not be too bright, but he figures he can make his fortune by buying Mr. Buffey's brinze turkeys for a quarter apiece and selling them in Denver for $5 each...The gifted Karr has a cheerful, sassy down-home writing style and a perfect pitch for dialogue.” —Starred, Publishers Weekly Starred, School Library Journal Kirkus Reviews
"I've always been fond of birds, poultry in particular." From that first sentence, readers will gobble up Karr's (Oh, Those Harper Girls!) hilarious novel of a boy who resolves to walk 1000 turkeys from the Show-Me state to Denver, Colorado. Simon, who's 15 and newly graduated from the third grade, may not be too bright, but he figures he can make his fortune by buying Mr. Buffey's bronze turkeys for a quarter apiece and selling them in Denver for $5 each. With his schoolteacher as an investor, Simon picks up a former drunk and a runaway slave to be his partners, and starts herding those turkeys 900 miles down the road. In their travels, they encounter a raging river and a swarm of locusts, each of which the turkeys conquer. But peskiest of all, they're tailed by Simon's no-good father, a circus strongman, who decides he wants in on the deal. The gifted Karr has a cheerful, sassy down-home writing style and a perfect pitch for dialogue (she also has an authoritative knowledge of poultry, having grown up on a New Jersey chicken farm). A bonus: the tale is based in truththere really were turkey drives in the American West. Ages 10-up. (Apr.)
(PW best book of 1998)
Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
Gr 4-8Fusing plot elements and modes of characterization (or appropriate near-stereotypes) from the tall tale, the comic novel, the melodrama, and the more literary Bildungsroman, The Great Turkey Walk is a charmer, from the immediate hook of its first chapter to its perfectly satisfying conclusion. The year is 1860, and "pea-brained" Simon Green, a brawny 15 year old, is "graduated" from school after his fourth year of third grade. Wondering what to do next, he seizes upon the complaint of a local turkey farmer: that birds worth $5 in turkey-starved boomtown Denver are worth only 25 cents in Missouri. With the financial assistance of his beloved former teacher (and new business sponsor), who risks her life savings to help him, Simon buys 1000 birds. A few more minor loansa wagon, feed corn, four mulesand the partnership of a washed-up mule driver are all he needs to begin the 800-mile trek to Denver. Along the way, Simon matures from a good-hearted and sensible (if not booksmart) boy to a good-hearted, sensible, and potentially wealthy young man, and mule driver Bidwell Peece recovers his dignity. Joined en route by a runaway slave and the sole survivor of a homesteading family, Simon gains his first true friend and the girlfriend who may someday become his wife. Full of good humor and page-turning quest-style events, the story smacks of legend and archetype without seeming self-important, and it genuinely amuses readers rather that smugly proclaiming its wit. This novel begs to be read aloud.Coop Renner, Coldwell Elementary Intermediate School, El Paso, TX
Karr (Spy in the Sky, 1997, etc.) embellishes her reputation for spirited, comic adventures with this tale of a young entrepreneur who drives a thousand headþof turkeysþfrom Missouri to Denver in 1860. Strapping Simon Green can't pass third grade (he's tried four times), but he's a canny businessman: After learning that two-bit turkeys will sell for in Denver, he persuades his former teacher to bankroll him, hires a drunken muleskinner for help, and sets out, braving weather, rivers, rustlers, clouds of grasshoppers (not exactly a disaster, with a thousand turkeys to feed) and other hazards, picking up two orphansþone a fugitive slave, the other sole survivor of her settler familyþalong the way. Karr draws characters with a very broad brush, contrasting a bloodthirsty troop of US cavalry with a helpful band of Pottawattomieþ" `As official peacekeepers for our territory, we feel it incumbent upon ourselves to see that nothing unorthodox occurs on our lands' "þand supplying an inept, eminently boo-able villain in Samson, Simon's unscrupulous father. Not only do the turkeys practically herd themselves, they fetch an even higher price in Denver than Simon expects; in the end, with his new partners and a few dozen birds, he decides to try ranching. A wide-open western epic, inspired by actual drives and featuring a cast of capable young people. (Fiction. 10-13)
Fifteen-year-old Simon Green loves birds, poultry in particular, but he’s simple. Everyone knows that. His Aunt Maybelle and Uncle Lucas. His cousins. Even his golden-haired schoolmarm, Miss Rogers. But only Miss Rogers knows that while Simon is simple, he’s not at all stupid. Narrator Tom Stechschulte does Simon justice as the boy sets out to escort a thousand turkeys from Missouri to Denver and make his fortune. With his down-home drawl and his slow-but-solid thinking, Simon is an appealing hero. Stechschulte also brings to life a distinctive cast of characters: the genteel Miss Rogers, the gruff-voiced drunken muleskinner, and Simon’s oily, villainous father. The leisurely narration is a splendid match for the pace of this feathered trip. T.B. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine
