The Great Turkey Walk

We are enjoying Kathleen Karr's book, The Great Turkey Walk.  Written in colloquial style, this novel is a great read-aloud.  Thomas and I began reading Friday, to pass the time while Emma and Peter were working in the temple; the others were drawn into the story when they joined us.  Dad came in a couple of days later, as we neared the conclusion, and decided he wanted to read it himself.  He has been sharing the book with the two older girls.  While there are a handful of places where a reader might choose to edit a word, the book has plenty of adventure and gentle character lessons for boys and girls of multiple age groups.  It shows the practical value of school skills and also has some clever twists that help teach irony in its many forms.  The laugh-out-loud appeal for this book is high.

Like the unlikely hero of Holes, 15-year-old "Simple" Simon Green begins as an underdog with little but his cheerfulness going for him.  The story opens on the last day of school in 1860, when Simon's ladylike teacher "graduates" him, following his fourth attempt at third grade.  He borrows the teacher's life savings, invests in a flock of bronze turkeys and (with the hired help of the town drunk and his dog) embarks on an 800-mile journey, amidst the jeers and ill-wishes of his greedy extended family and the neighbors.  As the story progresses, Simon's unlikely party grows, overcomes obstacles and meets unexpected good- and bad-guys.  These include educated Indians, turkey rustlers, the US Cavalry, religious townsfolk, circus swindlers, swarming locusts, an escaped slave and even Simon's long-lost father.

"I think Simon must have had some good determination to walk a thousand turkeys all the way from Missouri to Denver," says Peter.  "I imagine it was hard, and it must have been disappointing when people tried to steal from him."

"It was a fun book," says Thomas.  "My favorite part was when the Indians said that everyone knows Indians are too stupid to know about boundaries.  And I also liked it when Simon caught up with the turkey rustlers the first time and told one of them he had been cheated by his partner with a double-headed coin."

"Simon's best talent was his ability to read people's motives," says Peter.  "He also had the ability to find out what people were good at and help them put their talents to good use.  Maybe this was because he worked at understanding people."

The author tells us that turkey drives really happened during the mid-1800's.  Without refrigerated train cars or trucking, taking meat on its own legs was the only way to get fresh food from one place to another.