10 Turkeys in the Road

By Brenda Reeves Sturgis

Illus. by David Slonim

c2011

29 pages

Counting Book

This rhyming, counting book has a lot of potential to be cute. But it falls short.

The main character (that isn't a turkey) is a grumpy farmer. Throughout the story the 10 turkeys cause road blocks that only make him grumpier.

Each time he tries to get the turkeys to get out of the road (throws his hat, pounds his hood, flashes his lights) one turkey flies away.

The turkeys look slightly deranged and seem to be oblivious that the farmer is annoyed with them being in the middle of the road.

Educational Value

I like that the individual numbers for each page "Three turkeys in the road" are highlighted in a different colour.

The story moves quickly, with one turkey flying away on each page.

There are 10-20 words on each page and the font is nice and big.

The rhyming cadence is easy to follow and the vocabulary is simple.

The last line of each page is "One turkey flew away" which makes it easy for children to remember and recite each time.

Thumbs Down

Sometimes it's very difficult to count the turkeys because you only see part of a turkey. If you don't see a head, it's difficult to see if it is a turkey at all and if it should be counted.

The colour palette for this book is very pale, which means that the turkeys don't stand out from the page at all.

Thumbs Up

I think this book would be received much better if it is read by an enthusiastic adult reader. Children reading it alone would not find the book very interesting.

If the reader emphasizes the silliness of the turkeys and the increasingly angry farmer this book could be pretty entertaining.

Bookworm gives this book 3/5 stars