Wild Turkeys

by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent, William Muñoz (Illustrator)

Describes the physical characteristics, habitat, behavior, and life cycle of wild turkeys

48 pages, Library Binding

First published December 1, 1998

About the author

As a child, my favorite activity was exploring nature, especially finding animals like frogs, toads, and lizards. I kept tropical fish, had a dog, and loved riding horses. My love of animals led to a Ph.D. degree from U.C. Berkley in Zoology. In grad school I met and married fellow student Greg Patent. Our two sons, David and Jason, were born before we finished school. I wanted to use my training and my knowledge, but I also wanted to raise my sons and be there for them when they needed me. I decided that writing the kind of books I'd always loved reading was a good solution to my dilemma, and that turned out to be true. One of my favorite things is learning new "stuff," and every time I tackle a new book project I get to indulge myself in that passion. I'm a lucky gal!

Fast forward to the present. Our sons are grown and have their own families. We live in Missoula, MT, where Greg is now a food writer (http://www.thebakingwizard.com) and a radio personality (httpp://www.mtpr.org--look for Food Guys). My writing has expanded to other nonfiction topics, especially ones dealing with the Westward Expansion period of U.S. history. I've taught writing classes in many venues, visited schools in most U.S. states, attended many conferences for teachers and librarians, won a number of awards, and had great travel adventures in pursuit of my subject matter.

Reviews

[Debbie Nicoletti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every week my husband and I visit my grandson in Monticello, a rural Georgia town. We walk down a country road to an animal rescue farm and feed the donkeys and pigs pecans in the shell. There are two very fancy black turkeys strutting around who follow us everywhere we walk. They make a thumping sound from their chest and I was curious about these beautiful creatures so I checked this book out of our library to learn more about them! I loved this book and learned so many interesting facts about wild turkeys and now I know these beautiful creatures are Toms and they are puffing up and spreading their feathers into fans to attract hens. They are also the only turkeys that gobble. I also learned that when they display, their skin on their head turns bright red. The thumping sound they make is called a “chunk” sound.

Loved the author’s writing style and photographs! Very Good Read!

[Arminzerella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Turkey information seems to be good - would have liked some bigger, brighter, more detailed photographs to accompany the text. Has a glossary and an index, but no sources cited or further reading suggestions.