Looking for a Moose

"Have you ever seen a moose - a long-leggy moose - a branchy-antler, dinner-diving, bulgy-nose moose? This is the question asked by one of the four children in this tale of a moose search as she asks her three friends and fuzzy little dog before they enter the woods. Thus begins the journey of the five friends searching for a moose. This opening is actually a sort of little index or table of content for the rest of this wonderfully amusing story. This work is an easy book to read and is absolutely ideal for either a one on one read or a group read. As the children and dog progress through various environments; woods, swamps, bushes, mountains, we need to keep a close eye on the little dog and a sharper eye on our surroundings. As the children search for the illusive moose they become more and more discouraged that there simply are no moose to be seen! Or are there? Warning....a spoiler follows: Yes, there are moose; there are moose all over the place as the little dog could quite tell them if they paid attention or if they looked closer at their surroundings. The illustrator, Randy Cecil has rather ingeniously hidden bits and pieces of moose throughout the book and the kids get an absolute kick out of trying to find them once the realize they are there. The rhyming of the text is delightful to the ear and makes is an absolute pleasure to read aloud. I can promise you that the author's word play will bring a smile to your lips and giggles from the wee ones. Each line of text goes perfectly with the illustrations which are colorful, soothing and woodsy. Other than moose, there are plenty of other creatures stuck here and there throughout the pictures which are also rather fun to ferret out; bird, insects, fogs, furry creatures and other little critter abound. Published in 2006 this is one that you really need to find and add to your child's library; or at the very least do a library search and bring it home for some good reading with the little ones. This is an excellent read and I do highly recommend it. Don Blankenship The Ozarks

My almost-3-year-old son and I took this one out from the library, and LOVED it! The text is clever and fun, and the illustrations are wonderful. We are putting it on his "wish list". HIGHLY recommended.

This is a great book to read aloud! It is just fun to read. It wasn't until the third time through that we noticed that moose were hiding on some of the pages so we had to read it again.

This is a wonderful book with lines like "a long-leggy...branchy-antler, dinner-diving, bulgy-nose moose." Kids love listening to the rhythm of the words and searching for the moose. After my nephew figured out the hiding moose, he took great delight in pointing them out to me, with me pretending I couldn't see them. We read the book several times a day and even conducted our own moose hunt in the house. He wept so when it went back to the library that I just had to buy it for him. Great book for kids and adults!

All right, I confess, I have a personal interest in this book. The little dog who goes with the children on their joyful moose hunt ("Franny, who always knows where the moose is," as illustrator Randy Cecil puts it in his dedication) once lived in my house. Franny was rescued from a shelter by Second Chance Poms, Inc., a local rescue group, and I fostered her. As a mother, grandmother, and former teacher, I appreciate the "table of contents" on the first page, as the first child asks the other children (and the dog) if they have "ever seen a moose--a long-leggy moose--a branchy-antler, dinner-diving, bulgy-nose moose." Each of these categories becomes an enjoyable page turn as the children prepare to look for a "long-leggy moose"; enter the woods and look all around at the tree trunks while Franny stares at the four moose legs in among the trunks; and then express their disappointment. "We look and we look, but it's just no use. We don't see any long-leggy moose." It becomes a game for children reading the book to count the number of moose the children are missing (and which Randy Cecil hides so cleverly in the scenery), one long-leggy moose, two dinner-diving moose, three branchy-antler moose. (Franny, of course, always sees them.) Finally, the children do see the moose, and with a twist of humor, they see "a moose and a moose and a moose" as well as "so many moose." Yes, Johnny, the plural of moose is moose.