Moose, Of Course!

A persistent young boy tries everything he can think of to attract a moose, but it isn't until he is forced to "do nuthin" that he is successful

PreSchool-Grade 1-This story follows a boy's dogged efforts to find a moose while the adults he encounters repeatedly tell him that the best method is to "do nuthin." Finally, when he finds himself hanging upside down in a snare he intended for the animal, he relaxes and decides to "do nuthin," as advised. Only then is he rewarded with the wondrous sight of a grazing moose family. Words such as "deuce," "lure," "noose," "sashayed," and "swayed" used in the forced rhyming text may not be comprehensible to young children. While the book uses repetition and onomatopoeic words that youngsters usually enjoy, the slight plot is unsatisfying. The watercolor illustrations are adequate but not winning enough to overcome the textual flaws.
Jackie Hechtkopf, University of Maryland, College Park
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This silly, rhyming cumulative tale describes a boy bent on spotting a moose. His strategies include riding a bicycle built for two, in the hopes that a moose will join him (he attracts a goose instead), and dressing up in moose dragAwith red lipstick, stilts and a moose hideAto lure a male moose. After getting snagged by his own moose trap, he's forced to heed the words of several hortatory adults and "do nuthin' "Aand subsequently spies an entire moose family. Rhyming couplets describe the action, followed by a refrain that piles up sound effects and encapsulates the unruly events, from "Bonkity-bonkAA bike built for deuce/ Honkity-honkAA pedaling goose" to the "Pausity-pauseAA bull, calf, and cow/ Gawkity-gawzAA wonderous wow." While the plot here doesn't have the urgency of Plourd's hilarious Pigs in the Mud in the Middle of the Rud, children at the younger end of the target age range will enjoy chiming in with the onomatopoeic noises in each refrain. Sollers makes his children's book debut with appropriately lighthearted and freely rendered cartoon illustrations. The boy bears a resemblance to Dennis the Menace, with a horizontal slash under his eyes to contour his face and seemingly boundless energy. Ages 8-10. (Aug.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.