Wyckoff Author Pens 'Turkey Bowl' Thanksgiving Book

This Thanksgiving, when local families gather to enjoy turkey, football, and togetherness, they can read about all three in a new book by a Wyckoff author.

Robert Skead has published his latest ebook for children, The Turkey Bowl, The Thanksgiving Day Challenge.

“I actually got the idea for this book seven years ago, on Thanksgiving, when I was watching football,” Skead said.

“All of the sudden it hit me – turkeys playing football. It’s never been done.”

Skead, a 49-year-old author who grew up in the township and now lives in Wyckoff with his family, said the story is a fun, family-friendly one.

“The Turkey Bowl tells the story of Junior the turkey, who only days before the biggest football game of his life, witnesses his dad, Flyer, get sacked, trapped and “turkeynapped” by humans. Blaming himself for his father's predicament, Junior goes on an adventure with two of the animal world’s coolest super heroes, Super Buck and the Masked Wonder, hired to save Flyer from becoming Thanksgiving dinner and get him home in time for the big annual football game,” he explained.

Skead said he first thought of the idea as a concept for a cartoon movie or holiday special, and so hired a well-known artist to illustrate his script.

Tom Bancroft, best known for illustrating on Disney movies like Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Mulan, Tarzan and Atlantis, worked on the project.

When Skead decided to publish the story as an ebook instead of a movie, Bancroft’s illustrations stuck with it.

And, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, the local author has decided to donate some of the proceeds from downloads of the ebook.

“Parents who download the $4.99 eBook…will support the work of Feeding America the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief charity, dedicated to feeding America's hungry through a nationwide network of member food banks and engaging our country in the fight to end hunger,” Skead said.

Skead has published a line of books, both electronic and in paperback editions. See more about the full line of his books, here.