The Great Turkey Walk

The Great Turkey Walk
by Kathleen Karr
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998. Fiction. 199pgs.

This hysterical historical fiction is a exaggerated retelling of actual "turkey walks" that took place before the turn of the century. Simon Green, a brawny 15-yr-old third-grader, decides to give up school to make his fortune. Miss Rogers, Simon's teacher who believes he can make something of himself even if she doesn't believe he can make it to fourth grade, invest $250 in his venture, and he buys a 1000 turkeys at a quarter a piece to make the long walk from Eastern Missouri to Denver where he'll sell them for five dollars a head. With a beat up wagon, beat up mules, and a beat up mule skinner, Simon is in for the adventure of a lifetime.

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