'Turkey Goes to School' brings young readers to Niwot

The persistent turkey at the center of Wendi Silvano's Turkey Trouble series is crushed when he learns that farm animals don't go to school. But with some help from his barnyard friends, Turkey uses his knack for coming up with clever disguises to get them all into a local classroom...almost.

That's the story behind "Turkey Goes to School," the latest installment in Silvano's popular series and one of the featured titles at The Wandering Jellyfish Bookshop in Niwot. On Aug. 21, the Grand Junction-based author stopped by the store and entertained a youthful crowd with a reading and Turkey-inspired activities.

"The turnout was much better than we expected, especially considering we didn't have much time to prepare between this and the grand opening," Carissa Mina, co-owner of Wandering Jellyfish, said. The store held a ribbon cutting and celebration on Aug. 13. "But everyone had a great time, and Wendi was really fantastic with the kids."

"Turkey Goes to School" is the fifth book in the Turkey Trouble series, which chronicles the adventures of an excitable farm turkey as he uses clever costumes to get himself in and out of trouble. Silvano said that the character was inspired by a real turkey she met while living in Peru.

"Whenever we would finish eating, we'd go scrape our leftovers into this trough, and the dogs would come running, and this turkey would just come running. And I didn't think turkeys have personality, but he really did. He was quite a comedian. He would follow us around and tease us."

Her turkey friend came to mind years later when she started writing children's books.

"I thought he would be good in a Thanksgiving story, and there isn't a lot of Thanksgiving stuff out there," Silvano said.

Turkey made his debut in 2009's "Turkey Trouble," where he disguises himself as different animals to avoid becoming the main course at Farmer Jake's Thanksgiving dinner. The character proved so popular that in 2012 she published a sequel, "Turkey Claws," which sends Turkey to the North Pole in order to escape the dinner table. Since then, Silvano has published "Turkey Trick or Treat," and "Turkey's Eggcellent Easter," each featuring Turkey coming up with some outrageous costumes.

"His disguise is never the same," Silvano said. "It's been interesting to see what Lee Harper, the illustrator, figures out how to disguise him because he's had to come up with some pretty strange things."

The sixth book in the series is due out in December, and will have a Valentine's Day theme. Silvano isn't sure where the series will go after that, and she also has some other characters in development, including a ballet dancing tiger.

In the meantime, Silvano wants to get books into the hands of as many children as possible.

"Reading for kids is about the best thing you can do to get ready for school," she said. "I was a teacher for many, many years and have a bunch of kids and grandkids too. So I've seen the power of reading and books, and my goal is to make books that kids will love to hear over and over."

The Wandering Jellyfish Bookshop (198 2nd Ave., Niwot) is open Tues. - Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday, 10 a.m.- 6 p.m., and Sunday by appointment. For more information, visit their website at twjbookshop.com or on Facebook (@twjbookshop).