Turn Left at the Cow

When Travis is sent to his grandmother's house on a lake in Minnesota for the summer, he doesn't expect to uncover a mystery about his dead father and a lot of money. Was his dad to blame? Or is another one of the townspeople responsible? Layer upon layer, the author builds a taut mystery that has a breath-holding ending. Highly recommended for classroom and summer reading.

My middle schooler read this book for school and really enjoyed it. The book is a mystery and revolved around kids his age. It was fast-moving and he finished it in record time- for him anyway. The book is sprinkled with sarcasm, humor and a sprinkling of sweetness, but not too saccharine. I think there might have been a few choice words, but nothing terrible. My kid said he would recommend it to kids his age (but I liked it, too).

A mystery novel with light romance. occasional annoying writing, but a nice romance plot and interesting idea. WHY THE HELL IS IT CALLED TURN LEFT AT THE COW!?

This condition of the book is exactly as described and, as an English teacher, I’m happy to say that this book was grabbed up from my in-class library the very day I put it on display! 📖📚

Book ordered as a requirement for my son's reading class. The book was delivered as expected and was it perfect shape. It's a cute story also.

"Crap." "Ass." Fingerprints of middle-school humor smear the story but the book doesn't quite fall off the cliff into South Park territory. Broken families are en vogue in young adult literature and Travis' story (he's the protagonist and narrator) follows in line. His mother remarried, Travis spends a summer with his grandmother (his dead father's mother) in rural Minnesota. The quirkiness of the characters and the surroundings immediately conjured up the 1996 film, Fargo . While that's not a film for my 9-year old son, who I asked to read this book along with me, it is a good point of reference for parents who have watched the Coen brothers' comedy of errors. Author Lisa Bullard wants to turn heads (literally and figuratively). She opens the book: "There were so many dead bodies stuffed into Gram's freezer chest that it was kind of like wandering through a cryonics lab. You know, one of those place where they turn rich old guys into Popsicles? Gram had been hearing odd noise from her cellar for a while now, and she was convinced it was this dying freezer she kept there. So my punishment for the day was to clean it out and stuff everything into these jack-o'-lantern leaf bags that Gram had been saving since who knows how many Halloweens ago." My 9-year old son doesn't know who Ted Williams was, much less that his frozen head in kept in Florida, awaiting a scientific breakthrough that will put The Splendid Splinter back in the ballpark. In trying to step beyond her past work in picture books, it felt as though Bullard wasn't entirely comfortable settling into children's books. Trying to be a mystery, a coming-of-age story, a wry comedy, the book ended up without a clear identity; the mishmash overwrought at times. In summary, I didn't care for the snarky tone or the Nickelodeon sense of humor. Here's three examples: * "It stinks like `Snakes on a Plane' stank." * "Holy crap, dodo -- I don't think we're in California anymore." * "Since all the people in the room had their eyes closed, I thought it was the perfect time for me to send up a little prayer of my own, asking the Big Guy Upstairs to levitate me out of there or maybe turn me invisible while nobody was looking." Rating: Three stars

Had to order this for my daughter's 6th grade Reading class. They're going to have live baby chicks also!

It was a big twist full of adventure, suspense, thriller, and mystery. I 😍 it!!! I would recommend it to anyone. There's even a little bit of sports!