Beauty and the Beaks: A Turkey's Cautionary Tale

The humor and artistry in this book are wonderfully memorable and so good that you'll want to share them with others. This is an excellent choice for read-alouds and story times. We've already shared this book three times with other little friends (and big ones) over the Thanksgiving holiday. It got lots of laughs and many comments about the artwork. We are going to look for more work from this excellent author. The prose is robust, thoughtful and smart, full of wit and comedic eggspression! Bravo!

This is a cute story about a turkey who joins turkeys on a farm only to discover his invitation at the "big house" is be the turkey for Thanksgiving. The chickens try to help him with hilarious results. The illustrations are quite interesting and part of the entertainment. I'm not sure how it's done but resemble stop action photography of models. The colors in the book are especially bright.

We all know what we look forward to in the latter part of November - Thanksgiving Day and juicy, succulent roast turkey. But, as that time approaches, how does a turkey feel? The writing/illustrating team of Jane and Herm Auch tell just how it is in their uproarious tale of Lance, a conceited turkey whose beak is out of joint because he's the only one invited to a feast. Why, he's so stuck up that he doesn't know that the feast is him. Fortunately, he finds a friend in Beauty, who owns a beauty shop, The Chic Hen. It's here that all the chickens come to be spruced up and, of course, to gossip. When Lance arrives all of them think he's the saddest looking hen they've ever seen. When Beauty discovers he is really a turkey, she begins to wonder just what kind of a feast he's been invited to attend. She flies to the farmhouse to do a little investigating, and her heart stops when she peeks in a pantry window and sees a cookbook open to "Roast Turkey with Chestnut Stuffing." The plan Beauty and the other hens devise to save Lance is hilarious, and illustrations are laugh-out-loud funny. Beauty and the Beaks will bring smiles to grown-ups and laughter to youngsters. Enjoy! - Gail Cooke