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.
Publishers Weekly
With an infectious assertion "We've never, ever, ever, ever, ever seen a moose. And we really, really, really, really want to see a moose" four children go in search of the elusive beast. As the quartet pokes in the woods, wades in swamps and peers in the bushes, Root (Big Momma Makes the World) takes ample opportunity for rhythmic wordplay: "We scrape through the bushes scritch scratch! scritch scratch! the brambly-ambly, bunchy-scrunchy, scrubby-shrubby bushes." The search finally takes them to a rocky hillside, where a whole passel of comically deadpan moose await ("We've never, ever, ever seen so many moose!"). The payoff isn't entirely satisfying, however, because author and illustrator do not seem entirely in sync. Cecil's (My Father the Dog) stubby-legged, potato-faced moose-seekers are cute and comically intent, but the expressionistic landscapes, with their subtly mottled textures and muted palette of greens and browns, put a visual damper on the silly proceedings. Still, children should enjoy seeing the diminutive cast confidently scrambling over hill and dale, and sharp-eyed readers will get a kick out of spotting various clues (e.g., skinny tree trunks with hooves) that the moose have actually been following the party all along. Age 3-5. (Sept.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.