Have You Ever Seen a Moose?

Have you ever, ever, ever, ever seen a moose? And really, really, really, really want to see one?

We've been having so much fun this week with, Looking for a Moose, by Phyllis Root and illustrated by Randy Cecil. Of all the books in our library haul this week the girls have chosen, Looking for a Moose, every evening. And sometimes we reread it twice in a row. It has all the elements young children love. Sing-song rhyming verse, adventure, and hide-and-seek.

Randy Cecil's humorous illustrations are painted in the warm colors of fall and his figures are rounded and bulgy-nosed. We love the picture of children wading one after the other through a swamp, "squeech squooch!" And we talk about whether they got wet. We talk about when the children pull on their boots, roll down their pants, button up their sleeves, take off their hats and tighten up their packs. Will they ever see a "branchy-antler moose?"


Moose are on my mind as I've been working with Keith Patterson's wonderful illustrations for Maybelle, Bunny of the North. He sent me some new images to include in the book which will be released in spring. I love this watercolor painting of a shivering moose. Often I dream of what it must be like to have a white winter. There are a few Christmas tree farms here in town but everything is green, green, green. It's all relative though isn't it? I wonder if people who live in Australia and Brazil romanticize about a white Christmas too. And then again, I would probably look like this little guy after a couple of hours outside in the cold searching for moose.