Looking for a Moose - Hardcover

Root, Phyllis

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 076362005X ISBN 13: 9780763620059

Publisher: Candlewick, 2006

Synopsis

An ear-tickling, eye-teasing romp for little listeners, led by an award-winning author and illustrator

Do you really, really want to see a moose — a long-leggy moose — a branchy-antler, dinner-diving, bulgy-nose moose? Spurred by Phyllis Root's sing-songy text and Randy Cecil's buoyant illustrations, this hunt for an elusive moose through woods, swamps, bushes, and hills is just as fun as the final surprise discovery of moose en masse. Children will laugh at the running visual joke — what is that little dog looking at? — and ask for repeated reads of this satisfying tale.

About this title

About the Author

Phyllis Root is the author of more than thirty books for children, including ONE DUCK STUCK, OLIVER FINDS HIS WAY, and the BOSTON GLOBE-HORN BOOK Award-winning BIG MOMMA MAKES THE WORLD. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Randy Cecil has illustrated many books for children, including the NEW YORK TIMES best-selling AND HERE'S TO YOU! by David Elliott, WE'VE ALL GOT BELLYBUTTONS! by David Martin, and MY FATHER THE DOG by Elizabeth Bluemle. He lives in Houston, Texas.

Reviews

PreSchool-Grade 1–Four intrepid youngsters set out to find a moose–a long-leggy…branchy-antler, dinner-diving, bulgy-nose moose. They've never seen one, but they know what to look for. Their investigations take them through the woods, into the swamp, behind the bushes, and up a rocky hillside before finally reaching their goal. In the end, they find not one moose, but more than they ever imagined. Root's minimalist story bears a strong resemblance to We're Going on a Bear Hunt, but without the breathless backtracking that makes reading that tale so much fun. The text here is not strict rhyming, but there is a singsong effect that borders on annoying baby-speak, such as when the children climb the rocky-blocky, lumpy-bumpy, fuzzy-muzzy hillside. Cecil's illustrations, done in oil, have a fuzzy-muzzy look of their own, with evident brushstrokes and earthy, woodsy shades of green, brown, and gray. The perspective of the pictures, leading readers' eyes down, at times gives the impression that the children are themselves being watched by the moose. An animal is in fact hidden in each picture, although many youngsters will need help to spot it. Because of the seek-and-find layout, the book will work better one-to-one than with a group.–Kara Schaff Dean, Needham Public Library, MA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Root's jaunty wordplay and Cecil's textured, hide-and-seek illustrations make this an engaging romp that will be fun to share with one child or many. In the first double-page spread, an excited-looking little girl asks three other kids if they have seen "a long-leggy moose." This starts the children (and one very alert dog) on a quest that takes them to the woods, a swamp, a clump of bushes, and a rocky hillside. Part of this fun comes from the kids changing costumes--removing and replacing hats, boots, and backpacks, and raising and lowering their pants legs and sleeves. The text appeals to the senses: there's the "squeech squooch! squeech! squooch!" of the "sloppy-gloppy, lily-loppy, slurpy-glurpy swamp." The illustrations, done in oils, keep to forest colors of browns, greens, and oranges as they pull youngsters along until the search ends with the discovery of a whole field of moose, just right for counting. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Candlewick
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 076362005X
• ISBN 13: 9780763620059
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Cecil Randy
• Number of pages: 40