Thanksgiving book about a turkey running away

Run Turkey Run

Author : Diane Mayr

Illustrator: Laura Rader

This Thanksgiving book is THE best library find for this month. The book has got to be the most hilarious children’s book we have ever read.

Synopsis

The book is about a turkey who tries to escape from the farm before Thanksgiving day. Turkey apparently is not thankful on Thanksgiving day for obvious reasons. He tries to hide in the pigsty pretending to be a pig, then in the duck pond pretending to be a duck, later at the stables pretending to be a horse and so on. Finally he escapes from the farmer by hiding among the Christmas trees. He is safe until Christmas time.. When Christmas rolls around he is in trouble again.

The illustrator has captured the imagined essence of a turkey’s fear and anxiety on Thanksgiving day so clearly that you end up laughing so hard looking at the poor turkey’s face. Both my kids (age 4 and 2) request for this book to be read frequently. This is one book I don’t mind re-reading simply because I love to hear their loud laughter and giggles during bedtime. They especially loved the part where they get to say (read shout) RUN, TURKEY RUN!

[highlight bg=”#DDFF99″ color=”#000000″]This Thanksgiving book clearly has a hidden message.[/highlight]. If you as parents/care takers believe that it is possible for your kids to feel upset about eating a turkey after reading the book, please refrain. Please know you kids before picking this one up. However, I highly doubt a preschooler would take the message to heart and ruin his/her scrumptious Thanksgiving dinner.

Since we loved the book so much, I tried to extend the fun by creating a simple maze activity for the kids.

[box title=”Things we used” color=”#333333″]

• Painters tape
• Farmer and turkey puzzle pieces
• Wooden crates with dirt
• Glass bowl with blue colored water
• Stables set up
• Plastic trees

[/box]
I created a simple maze with painters’ tape on our floor.

The following day, I invited the kids to think about the story and set up the 4 very simple scenes present in the story. Since we have read this one many times, Big A had no trouble remembering the sequence. Baby A, surprisingly remembered 2 out of the 4 scenes.

I provided the kids with the materials needed for the scenes, and they set them up.

We began with the pigsty where the turkey hides. Big A shoveled some dirt into the crate and arranged her pigs.

Duck pond was set up with some water and food coloring in a glass bowl. Rubber ducks happily swam around.

We also recently got a “make your own farm set” which we put to use today by creating a quick stable for the turkey to hide from the farmer.

Finally, turkey’s haven – Christmas trees. Some dirt and plastic trees for turkey to hide.

Unfortunately I couldn’t take pictures of Big A creating her stable and her forest.

We also used a turkey and a farmer puzzle piece for our Protagonist and antagonist.

Big A, enacted the entire story with a turkey in one hand and the farmer in another running through the maze and hiding at various spots. I personally saw the way story-telling skills really kick in when given a few simple toys.

After doing the pretend version, she did her favorite bit. Without the toys, she pretended to be turkey and I had to be the farmer. We ran around the maze pretending to various characters from the story. That was so much fun for both the girls (however for the younger it was just the sheer joy of playing running and catching)

There, today’s activity was this week’s major hit in our household.

P.S This post is NOT a sponsored post. The kids just love the book.

 Thanks for reading

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