Book Review: A Plump and Perky Turkey

Book Review of:
A Plump and Perky Turkey
By Teresa Bateman
Book Review by: Jamie Turner

Perspective of Reviewer: A Plump and Perky Turkey is being reviewed from a K-2 writing perspective. I am reviewing it with the hope that it can be used to help model and teach one of the 6 plus 1 writing traits, specifically the trait of fluency. In K-2, writing fluency is the way the story is read out loud. Some questions students might ask themselves when writing a fluent story are: Is it easy to read out loud? Does it have a variety of sentence beginnings? Are the sentences varied in length? Does the story have rhythm? Is there any dialogue? These are questions I asked myself when reviewing A Pump and Perky Turkey. Would this book be appropriate to model the concept of sentence fluency to a K-2 audience?

Summary of Book: It’s Thanksgiving time in a small town but the townspeople have no turkey for their feast. The turkeys in this town are much too clever to be caught and eaten for dinner. The townspeople decide that they need to come up with a plan to catch their dinner. After a town meeting they decide to have an art contest where they will sculpt turkeys from different materials, but how could this be done without a model turkey. So, posters are put out throughout the town advertising their need for a model turkey.
It was Pete the turkey who came to the rescue and modeled for the townspeople. Were the townspeople clever enough to catch Pete and turn him into Thanksgiving dinner? See for yourself who comes out on top!

Critique: A Plump and Perky Turkey would be a great way to model creative rhyming and writing to your students. This book was very well written with a very interesting plot that will surely keep your students attention.
This would be a great way to supplement your lessons on writing fluency and word play (using everyday words in new and creative ways). Although this book would be great as a read aloud to 1^st-2^nd graders, I think 3^rd graders would really be able to infer what’s going on and figure out exactly what the turkey was doing when he accepted the modeling job. Some of the vocabulary would also be more appropriate for 2-3^rd grade students.

A Plump and Perky Turkey can be brought new on Amazon.com for $5.95. If you allow Pete the turkey to find a spot on your book shelf you surely won’t regret it.

Other ways it could be used in writing or other subjects:
- Prediction lessons: Read the book without the ending and have students make predictions about what will happen

- Write the perspective of the turkey and what he is thinking throughout the story

- Social Studies: Thanksgiving introduction

- See the A Plump and Perky Turkey interactive website for more ideas: www.winslowpress.com

Bibliography:
Bateman, Teresa. (2001). A Plump and Perky Turkey. New York: Winslow Press.