School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-When Ma sends Pa out shopping, she cautions him to get only flour and eggs, as the family of six needs to save every penny in order to have a decent Christmas. Instead Pa comes home with a hungry young turkey that he aims to fatten up in time for the holiday. Alfred, as they name him, makes messes in and around their tiny tenement flat, angering everyone in the building. He does get fat in time for Christmas, but by then the family members can't bring themselves to eat him. Their solution is heartwarming if not entirely satisfying; some readers might feel that eating cantankerous Alfred would have been preferable to the meager holiday that the family celebrates. Cole's humorous illustrations bring to life the crowded conditions in a 19th-century New York tenement building; the characters are raggedy and poor, but full of spirit and good will.-Eva Mitnick, Los Angeles Public Library (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this charmingly loopy tale set in a cramped 19th-century tenement, Ma sends Pa to the market to buy eggs and flour ("Christmas is not far off, and we must save every penny"). He returns, however, with a scrawny turkey, vowing to fatten it up for Christmas, proclaiming, "Think of the money we'll save!" The bird eats everything in sight, wreaks havoc in their apartment, and annoys the neighbors, but when it's time to bring him to the butcher, the children protest. Creating a strong sense of the historical setting, Cole's (Good Enough to Eat) wispy pictures play off the ample comedy in the prose, making for a holiday story as humorous as it is touching. Ages 4-up. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
In a nineteenth-century New York tenement building, Ma sends Pa to the market for two eggs and a half pound of flour and not an ounce more because Christmas is not far off, and we must save every penny. Pa returns home with a surprise, a scrawny turkey he plans to fatten up with table scraps for the Christmas feast. As he gets deeper and deeper into his sunken-cost turkey scheme, his quick fixes become more and more outlandish the turkey moves from a stove-side box to a fire-escape pen to a crate hung from a clothesline over the privy but he's always quick to remind long-suffering Ma to think about the money we're saving. Naturally, by the time the holiday rolls around, the bird has made a complete mess of the apartment, wormed his way into the kids' hearts, and gobbled up any spare feast money, so the family (happily) winds up with oatmeal for dinner. Cole's buoyant watercolors capture the busy chaos and warm homeyness of family life plus turkey in this folksy journey into a different time.--Chipman, Ian Copyright 2010 Booklist
