Book Review: Turkey Talk by Lisa Nazarian

Turkey Talk by Lisa Nazarian

Lesruba Books

Turkey Talk is a young children's picture book with fun facts about turkeys. 
Turkeys are best known for being the main course of Thanksgiving dinner. But learning more about these birds might make you think twice before eating them for supper. 
Turkey Talk ultimately has an animal compassion, vegan/vegetarian message and even gives you information about where you can adopt a turkey instead of eating one.

K Says:

So, we're trying something new here with our kid's book reviews. While me transcribing what Miss *a* says is fun, to really get her opinion, you kinda have to be there. Since my house isn't big enough for ALL of you, what's better than a Vlog?

The book in question today is Turkey Talk by Lisa Nazarian. 

Now, I'd originally wanted to review the book, as it was described as a book of facts on turkeys, and Miss *a* had been full of questions around Thanksgiving.  When Hannah assigned us to review it, she'd mentioned it was supposed to have a vegan slant to encourage children towards a meatless lifestyle.  That gave me pause, but what the heck...nothing wrong with learning about other options, right?

Ok, first...this isn't a book.  Calling it a book is insulting to anyone who ever wrote a book.  This is a PowerPoint presentation....one at a middle school level, at that.  The facts are mostly  given.  "Turkeys have a mom and dad."  Well....yes...doesn't almost every animal?  The illustrations, and I hate to use that word at all, are stock cartoonish images, and cheesy ones at that.  Slapping a piece of clip art at the top center of a page, and rattling off some random "fact" does NOT a book make.  At one point, there were just a pair of cartoon eyes, with the fact "Turkeys have excellent vision."  That's what you have to work with here, people.  As for the vegan slant, the only time it was mentioned was in the last two pages.  We were "informed" that turkeys hate Thanksgiving, and that a kid could give a turkey something to be thankful for this thanksgiving by eating more stuffing instead.  Seriously?  That's all you're going to try?  'cause my kid hates stuffing.  It's gonna take more than that, trust me. I realize I'm coming off a bit harsh here, but I was mildly insulted...both that the author would try to pass this off as a book, and that she expected even small children to think that as well.  In fact, let's see what Miss *a* had to say about it. 

A Says:

I think it's easy to tell, she was not impressed either. All in all, this book might be a good read, if you need encouragement to become an author on your own.  If this is the stuff that's out there, trust me, you can do much better.  Now, I'm off to make my own PowerPoint so I can add "Children's Book Author" to my resume.  Feel free to forward me any clip art you find, the cheesier the better. 

Hannah Says:

I completely agree with K and A on this book. It was kind of a joke. I asked K & A to review it as well because I don't have kids and I think that its always nice to get a kids perspective on a children's book, rather than just look at it from an adult standpoint.

As you can see, this didn't hit well on the children or adult level. I read the "book" and the whole time I was thinking that I think I've seen all these illustrations on Microsoft Word. Also the facts about turkeys weren't at all convincing me to not eat turkey. In fact, I never would have known that was the point of the book if I hadn't read the description.

It was just a very poor way of going about the whole book.

I would say that the author needs to do a bit of tweaking on this book to make it more interesting to children, as well as find a better way to demonstrate her point.

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