MOOSE, OF COURSE!
written by Lynn Plourde, illustrated by Jim Sollers
Down East Books, 1999

Holding his breath,
he took a dip.
But fish, not moose
started to nip.
Bonkity-bonk—A bike built for deuce.
Honkity-honk—A peddling goose.
Arooooity-roooo—A boy who sashayed.
Mooooity-moooo—A bull who was swayed.
Glubity-glub—A boy who dipped.
Nibblity-nub—A fish who nipped.

About the Book

The boy in this book tries everything he can think of to see a moose—including dressing up like a girl moose and disguising himself as weeds and then dunking under water (moose actually eat weeds at the bottom of lakes and ponds). Everyone he sees suggests he just "do nuthin" and he might see a moose. But this boy is determined with a capital /D/, and he doesn't stop trying crazy stunts to see moose, until he gets caught in the trap he builds for moose-catching. Hanging upside down in his snare, the boy finally must "do nuthin," and sure enough a shadow appears. Could it be a moose?

Reviews

Publisher's Weekly . . . 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 drag—with red lipstick, stilts and a moose hide—to 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' "—and 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-bonk—A bike built for deuce/ Honkity-honk—A pedaling goose" to the "Pausity-pause—A bull, calf, and cow/ Gawkity-gawz—A wonderous wow." While the plot here doesn't have the urgency of Plourde'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.

Learning Activities

· Moose, of Course! has hidden moose in the illustrations. And so, it's fun to "spy" them. Rather than simply pointing at the hidden moose, the "speech therapist" in me (my job for 21 years) encourages readers to describe where the hidden moose are. For example, I see the moose in this picture on the page on the right side near the top peeking in the window. Or I see moose on the left page near the bottom behind the tree and above the bicycle. Some are tricky to find—the one on the pet shop page took me a week to find (and I only saw it when I held the book upside down—hint, hint).

· Learn about moose. Where do they live? What do they eat? How big are they? And so on. You'll find some moose information included in this story (such as the fact that they eat weeds at the bottom of ponds and the names for the mom, dad, and baby moose). Write a report or make a poster including your moose facts.

· Act out Moose,of Course! as a play. I've done so a hundred or more times with students at schools. I use simple props in the play—such as a blue tarp or bulletin board paper cut into an oval for a pond (for the fish—who are kids who simply make fish lips), toilet paper tubes taped together for binoculars, two chairs for the bicycle built for two (just sit on the chairs backwards), brown towels or brown sheets for the moose, swimming goggles for the goose, etc. Be creative thinking of props. Then have one person be the narrator and read the story while the "actors" do their parts as the story is read.

· Moose, of Course! is a 3P STORY—see the 3P activity under Pigs in the Mud in the Middle of the Rud learning activities. What are the problem, pattern, and promise in Moose, of Course!?

· Draw a moose. The illustrator of this book, Jim Sollers, had never seen a real moose when he illustrated this book (sssshhhh—don't tell anyone), so he had to look at photographs of moose in order to know how to draw the moose. His hint is to draw the basic shapes you see in animals first and then add the details afterwards. (Note: Jim Sollers has also illustrated another moose book, called Antlers Forever written by Frances Bloxam—which includes a fun story & moose facts. If you compare Jim's illustrations in both books, you'll see that his moose look very different. How do you think he could draw moose that looked so different from each other? Can you draw something in two different styles/ways?).

Story Behind the Story

I think of Moose, of Course! as my Maine book and my Zen book. I'm not quite sure how I came up with the idea for the book. It originally started with a "tourist" looking for moose, then changed to a boy. Moose are a big deal in Maine—everyone searches far and wide to see them. When company visits me from out-of-state, they always want to see moose and I try to oblige. We drive 100+ miles into "moose country" (Jackman, Greenville, Rangeley), but we NEVER see a moose. Then after the company leaves and I'm standing at my kitchen sink doing dishes—what should I see? Moose, of course! It has always been true for me that I see moose when I least expect it. If I try too hard, it never works (That's my philosophy in life too—don't try too hard for things you want, just trust and have faith and those things will find YOU—when you least expect it.).

Lynn Plourde and Jim Sollers share their book Moose, of Course! at the Maine Festival

Moose, of Course! was published by a Maine publisher, Down East Books, and illustrated by Jim Sollers who lives inRockland, Maine. It was fun to work locally on a book, and Jim Sollers and I had the chance to do many booksignings together the summer the book was released (which was terrific, since I usually don't get to meet the illustrators of my picture books). I would read the book, Jim would teach kids how to draw moose, and then we'd act out the book as a play.

I dedicated Moose, of Course! to my oldest stepson Lucas. I've known Luke since he was four-years-old and I married his dad. Now Luke is in his twenties and has graduated from college. Luke has always been my "moose kid." He's the sweetest guy you'd ever meet (I think of moose as gentle giants—usually), so thoughtful and caring, and little kids love him. But he also has always been a bit clumsy and awkward (When he wraps a present, the paper gets crumpled and there are peek holes. When he opens a new bag of chips, the bag tears apart and the chips go flying.). Moose are awkward too—sort of too big for their bodies.

I hope some of you will venture to Maine sometime to see moose and other parts of this beautiful state (Maine is known as Vacationland)—but remember not to try too hard—just "do nuthin"—of course!