This book was recommended on some homeschool curriculum lists for history to demonstrate life on the prairie. While it did paint the setting I was looking for, I was overall let down. The dialog was very... uneducated per say. It was hard to read aloud and the southern accent written in felt over done. I did appreciate the coverage over Native Americans and slavery, but wasn't impressed with the character depth given to these scenes and/or characters.

My kids were following along on print out maps with the main characters journey from Missouri to Colorado. The first 90% of the book covered the first half of the journey, and then the end jumped to arrival at the destination. We all agreed that the ended felt very rushed with this detail. Though the kids overall enjoyed the story, I wouldn't recommend this as a strong literature piece for homeschool education.

This was a fun read aloud my kids and I enjoyed in the month of November.

4th grade booktalk
At the beginning of our story, fifteen year-old Simon has just completed third grade. For the fourth time. And his teacher, Miss Rogers, has had enough. Don’t get me wrong – Miss Rogers likes Simon very much – for a four-time third grader, he’s a great student (relatively speaking, anyway). But Miss Rogers thinks Simon is too old for the third grade now, and so she’s graduating him (but don’t confuse that with passing him). Miss Rogers tells Simon it’s time for him to spread his wings.

So, Simon walks home from school. For the last time.

On his way there, he passes Mr. Buffey’s turkey farm, and Mr. Buffey himself, grumbling about the size of the turkey flock he has, and how much they’re costing him in turkey feed. Simon suggests selling the turkeys in St. Louis – but that’s a fifty mile walk away, and they’ve got turkeys enough according to Mr. Buffey. And so Simon gets thinking.

“Seems to me if they don’t need turkeys here in Missouri, you ought to take ‘em where they are wanted.” [Mr. Buffey] humphed. “Sure and certain. I got me all summer to walk a thousand turkeys out West, where they’s wanted.” I scratched my head again. “How far out West, Mr. Buffey?” “Why, someplace like to Denver! I was just readin’ in the papers about Denver. Biggest boomtown you ever saw, what with gold littering the very streets like it is. But they ain’t got nothin’ to eat there but beans and bread and coffee, three times the day. Turkeys on the hoof’d go for five dollars a head out there.” I stared at the turkeys again. “I ain’t got nothing to do all summer, Mr. Buffey.” “What’s that?” “I said, ain’t a solitary thing holding me down. I could walk your turkeys to Denver, Mr. Buffey.” “You, Simon?” He laughed. “You walk my turkeys to Denver? Near a thousand miles?” He laughed some more as if he’d just made his day.

And that’s how The Great Turkey Walk begins.

Just plain fun.

This book was the best kind of surprise. I read it aloud with my 11 year old, and didn’t expect much from it. But as the story progressed, we both fell in love with Simon’s resilience and his excellent character. Fun read aloud, but probably would’ve been better as an audiobook as the sentence structure got wonky at times making me trip over my tongue. Even so, five stars!

A terrific read aloud for November! We all really enjoyed it. A historical fiction journey story following Simon, a teenage boy, and his ragtag group of friends as they drive 1,000 turkeys from Missouri to Denver in 1890. The characters have dimension and a lot of heart. My only gripe is that the story is told from Simon’s perspective and the whole book used country twang and improper grammar. It’s fun for awhile, but it got to be a difficult read aloud after a bit.

Reviewed for CBPR

A cute, well-written book with lots of messages about great values - perserverance, trust, believing in yourself

As with all the other suggestions from The Read Aloud Handbook, this book was an excellent read aloud. I absolutely had to read the book in my best hillbilly accent. Simon wasn't the smartest of characters and no one spoke the King's English, so twang was important in all the voices. I think the book is improved by reading it aloud.

It's not exactly an exciting book. At no point was there grave danger, but it was amusing. They just get into a series of scrapes. My favorite stories all involved the turkeys - like when they bet on how much water a turkey could drink or when the turkeys eat all the locusts in the encroaching cloud. The fascinating thing to me is that turkey walk actually happened. There are records of a turkey walk just like what was described in this book. Of course, it probably wasn't as amusing in real life as it was in story format. Karr leaves out all the boring days when they walk though the wilderness and see no other people. Instead, it's a highlight reel. The characters are lightly fleshed out - not a lot of background, but everyone has a role to play on the walk. Even Lizzie, although it takes Simon a while to let her contribute.