What Use Is a Moose? - Softcover

Waddell, Martin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0763604615 ISBN 13: 9780763604615

Publisher: Candlewick, 1998

Synopsis

When Jack brings home a moose, his mother is not happy since she sees no purpose in having a moose as a pet, so Jack decides to show his mother just how useful his moose can be, but unfortunately for Jack, things do not turn out as he had expected.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

This pert spin on the improbable-pet genre introduces what is arguably the goofiest and most endearing moose to come down the pike since Bullwinkle. A boy named Jack brings the moose home, and then spends much of the book trying to justify the animal's presence to his skeptical mother. He proposes a variety of moose-appropriate roles: clothesline, chauffeur, gardener, chef, housekeeper. But again and again, the outcome is so calamitous that the refrain "That was no use!" becomes a lesson in understatement. Mom angrily banishes the moose, then rescinds her decree when she sees that Jack is despondent; she realizes that "being loved is a very good use for a moose." The laughter here is virtually nonstop. Drawn in loopy, Mad-magazine-cartoon style, Robins's (Knee-High Norman) gangly, toothy moose is a hoot, whether flashing an inane smile (especially when he's handed the keys to the family car) or gamely trying his hand at domestic chores. Yet the nameless moose never overshadows the other characters, and the wide range of Mom's and Jack's emotions comes through. Waddell's (Can't You Sleep, Little Bear?) text is a model of economy, never pushing a comic point or the moral too far. Ages 5-8.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 2. In hilarious and exciting incidents, a moose attempts to prove his usefulness in order to remain at young Jack's home. When he acts as a clothesline, a chauffeur, a gardener, and even a cook, his total failures force Jack's mother to send the animal back to the woods. However, Jack's loneliness and sadness without Moose make Mom conclude that "Being loved is a very good use for a moose." The creature returns to live in a shack that he and Jack build together. Bright, expressive watercolors increase the humor and intensify the action of each disastrous episode. Reminiscent of Shel Silverstein's Who Wants a Cheap Rhinoceros? (Macmillan, 1983), Waddell's book offers a zanier story. Children will delight in the antics and laugh as they ask for another read. What Use Is a Moose? deserves a place of honor next to Waddell's Can't You Sleep, Little Bear? and Farmer Duck (both Candlewick, 1992). A love story that's not to be missed.?Patricia Mahoney Brown, Benjamin Franklin Elementary School, Kenmore, NY
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Candlewick
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0763604615
• ISBN 13: 9780763604615
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Robins Arthur