- Paperback: 208 pages
- Publisher: FSG Kids; Reprint edition (Sep 1 2000)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0374427984
- ISBN-13: 978-0374427986
- Product Dimensions: 19.9 x 13.1 x 1.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 181 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #254,608 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
"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 truth?there really were turkey drives in the American West. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From School Library Journal
Grade 4-8-Having repeated third grade for the fourth time, 15-year-old Simon Green is told by his teacher that it's time for him to make his way in the world on his own. Simon hatches a plan to herd a bunch of turkeys from pre-Civil War Missouri to the far off boom town of Denver where they are selling for five dollars apiece. Simon proves sharp in the world of business. Coupled with this is his strong streak of human decency which attracts others to him, such as the highly redeemable town drunk who becomes fatherly on the journey; a runaway slave, eager to make it to free territory; and a teenage girl, all alone in a sod hut on the desolate prairie with the freshly dug graves of her parents and siblings at the back door. Working together as a family, these colorful have-nots manage to hold their own with Simon's thoroughly reprehensible father, a group of Potawatomi Indians, and a host of other challenges before they arrive in Denver. Set in 1860, Kathleen Karr's novel (FS&G, 1998) is read by the wonderfully versatile Tom Stechschulte who does the likeable, folksy voice of Simon, the refined schoolmarm, Miss Rogers, Simon's sly and no-good father and all the other characters as well. His is a virtuoso performance. This is sure to provide great fun for young listeners along with offering a painless, humorous understanding of such historic issues as slavery and the settling of the West.
Carol Katz, Harrison Public Library, Harrison, NY
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Carol Katz, Harrison Public Library, Harrison, NY
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Promising start but too annoying to finish,
By
This review is from: Great Turkey Walk (Paperback)
My family listened to this as a book on tape for a long drive (I'm the dad). The book started out with a cute premise and was engaging for about 150 miles. The narration was excellent. But then the book became way too politically correct and historically lame. The language especially dated the book to the 1990s instead of the 1860s when the story was supposed to take place. Aren't we past treating Native Americans as Noble Savages? Would people of this era use the expression, "the bottom line"? By 200 miles it was too annoying to listen any more. Book editors are supposed to help authors fix problems like these. Someone didn't do their job. I cannot recommend this book. Try "Old Yeller" instead.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Dull characters hide behind worldly theme,
By A Customer
This review is from: Great Turkey Walk (Paperback)
In this book, The Great Turkey Walk by Kathleen Karr, we meet a variety of extremely well written characters who all have some very apparent personalities whether they are easy-going, critical, or well-spirited individuals. The story element, though, that jumps out very obviously in this novel is the great worldly theme that is presented: the theme that no matter what society says about your intelligence or non-intelligence you can still do whatever you put your mind to because you are not born stupid as the culture may call you (exception the mentally-handicapped), rather it is an educational issue and by going through with your schooling or if it must be that you need to go back to school you can be what you want to be with work. The character that shows this kind of persevering theme in the novel would have to be Simon Green, who as a child had been picked on for being not only funny looking but also a little empty in the head, he had stayed in the third grade for over four years, but even through all this and absolutely without his over-critical families support, Simon went on to do a brilliant and very good business move by taking the turkeys from Mr. Buffey and walking them across the country, a task that any "intelligent" person would not have taken. So, overall The Great Turkey Walk again gives you a brilliant theme that attempts to light up the dull characters, but the book is definitely younger than it's teenage genre.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Great Turkey Walk by Kathleen Karr,
By A Customer
This review is from: Great Turkey Walk (Paperback)
" Git long now turkeys." Simon Green is a fifteen year old kid who takes 1000 turkeys cross-country. Sounds kind of disastrous doesn't it? Along the way, Simon meets up with his long lost pa who turns out to be evil and tries to steal his turkeys. The Great Turkey Walk was a laugh-out-loud comedy that kept me reading. I just couldn't put it down, it was like I was write there in the book. Simon was hilarious the way he talked and acted. This was a great non-stop laughing kind of book. If you like comedies about real life characters, The Great Turkey Walk is for you.
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