THE GREAT TURTLE DRIVE
by Steve Sanfield & illustrated by Dirk Zimmer
A young cowhand celebrating the end of a cattle drive plumps down at Frenchy's Gourmet Eating Establishment and Pizza Parlor and is outraged to be charged $4.00 for a tiny bowl of turtle soup. Outraged, that is, until he thinks of all the tortoises in West Texas. Dollar signs flash, and off he hustles for a different kind of roundup. Of course, in getting 20,000 land turtles to Kansas City, some problems come up. . . . Annoyed-looking reptiles with shells smooth and bumpy, spotted, crosshatched, striped and speckled, swarm across Zimmer's two-color, ink-and-pale-green drawings, amplifying the droll tone of this tongue-in-cheek tall trail tale. By the time the herd and drover arrive in KC (five years later), Frenchy's is, of course, closed, so it's back to Texas they trundle. Delicious! (Picture book. 5-7)