Book Review of THE TURKEY GIRL

Bibliography:

Pollock, Penny. 1996. The Turkey Girl: A Zuni Cinderella Story. Ill. by Ed Young. New York: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN0316713147


Plot Summary:

Penny Pollock retells a Zuni Cinderella story in The Turkey Girl. A young, orphaned girl is magically transformed in to a beautiful maiden by the turkeys she herds, so she can attend the Dance of the Sacred Bird. In exchange for providing her with a doeskin dress and jewels, the turkeys request that she return before the sun goes down. If she does not, they will seek their freedom. The girl attends the dance and is so enchanted by the event that she does not return until dark. She discovers that the turkeys have left, “never to return” (Pollock 1996), because she has broken her promise.


Critical Analysis:

As is typical of oral tales, the plot of The Turkey Girl is simple and direct. Pollock provides readers with the barest of details about the place and the character as the story unfolds. While this works well when the reader is familiar with the setting and the people in the story, it is difficult to understand if you have no knowledge of the Zuni culture. Having lived in New Mexico for eight years, I am familiar with the Native Americans of this area, but children might not be. This lack of familiarity could have been compensated for by including illustrations that relay some of the details left out of the traditional tale. Thus, providing readers with a concrete example of what the storyteller was relaying. Unfortunately, the drawings in The Turkey Girl do not provide the needed information.

Although Ed Young’s oil and pastel illustrations are beautiful and reflect the unique lighting of the southwest, they do not provide the amount of detail needed to bring the story to life. For example, when telling about the Dance of the Sacred Bird, Pollock writes, “People were already dancing in a circle . . . The throb of drums, pulsing in the heart of the plaza, was accented with a jangling-clacking sound . . . the sound came from the turtle-shell rattles encircling the arms and legs of the dancing braves.” This might be hard for a child to visualize, and Ed Young’s illustrations do not aid in providing additional information. Instead of an illustration of the dancers, the two page spread depicts, what looks like at first glance to be the feet of several dancers, but, upon closer examination, could be the heads of several turkeys. It is hard to determine exactly what the picture is. It is this abstractness which detracts from the story instead of enhancing it.

Pollock’s retelling of The Turkey Girl does not follow the Cinderella plot of “happily ever after” that most American children learn. Instead, this version ends with the girl in rags, and the turkeys she tends for her livelihood gone. The ending, although true to the Zuni version of the tale, is unexpected. Instead of resolving the issue of the girl’s poverty, the readers learn, “From that day unto this, turkeys have lived apart from their tall brothers, for the Turkey Girl kept not her word. Thus shortens my story.” This is disappointing because it is natural to wonder what became of the girl. However, by staying true to the Zuni tale, Pollock provides readers with an opportunity to learn about the many variants of the Cinderella tale, as well as providing them with an insight in to the Native American’s folklore which does not always have to end happily.

Overall, I did not care for The Turkey Girl. It is interesting to read as a contrast to the typical Cinderella story, but it is not a book that I would select to reread. Despite this, the book would be useful in a study of the many variations of the Cinderella tale across cultures as well as in a study of the Zuni culture itself.


Review Excerpts:

Horn Book Guide (September 1996) - “Textured pastel and oil-crayon illustrations evoke the southwestern desert. This unusual version with its rather abrupt ending provides an interesting contrast to European variations of the Cinderella story.”

Booklist (April 1996) - “A young Turkey Girl forgets her debt to her loving flock and ends up with nothing in this retelling of a Zuni tale. The bleakness of the tale is softened by Young's elegantly evocative pastel and oil crayon illustrations. Desert violets and rich reds complement one another against the spacious backdrop of the southwestern sky. The changing light, a constant indication of the emotional tenor of the plot, glows with reflected firelight, the sun's setting rays, and the chill twilight shadows. Pollock's retelling is steady and solid, and her source is clearly indicated in an author's note that gives some background on the tale.”


Connections:

Use this tale to discuss alternate endings to Cinderella stories. Read other variations of the Cinderella story. Compare characters, plot, magic, etc. Use the list at http://www.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/cinderella.html to locate other books to read.

Read Native American versions of Cinderella, such as ROUGH-FACE GIRL by Rafe Martin (ISBN 9780698116269) and SOOTFACE: AN AJIBWA CINDERELLA STORY by Robert San Souci (ISBN 9780440413639). Compare/contrast these tales to The Turkey Girl.

Discuss the moral of the book: Keep your promise. Talk about how a person feels when someone breaks a promise. What happens when a promise is broken?

Have the students write an alternate ending to the story to show what might have happened to the girl had she kept her promise.

Learn more about the Zuni Indians’ culture. Since the Zunis live in New Mexico, locate New Mexico on a map. Look at pictures of the Indian pueblos. Discuss the ceremonies held by the Zunis, the style of houses they lived in, the pottery they create, etc.

Read other Zuni tales. See if the stories resemble other folk tales the children have heard. Do they all end as unhappily as The Turkey Girl? Do they all teach a moral? See list of tales compiled by Frank Hamilton Cushing at the following website: http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/zuni/zft/zft02.htm.