A Moose That Says Moo

by Jennifer Hamburg, Sue Truesdell (Illustrator)

Overview

From jump-roping skunks to book-reading sharks, the animals in this girl's make-believe zoo will do whatever she wants. Messing with nature is fun at first, until we see how hilariously wrong things go. Oinking otters! Picketing ground hogs! Stage-crashing pigs! What could be next? With deadpan text and eye-popping art, this raucous picture book A Moose That Says Moo builds gleefully to a riot of craziness that brings the whole fantasy tumbling down—in a comedic warning against imaginary menageries that kids will find hilarious.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781466857391
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	10/29/2013
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
File size:	31 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	2 - 4 Years

About the Author

Jennifer Hamburg has written for numerous television shows on Disney Junior, PBS, and Nick Jr. She won two Emmy Awards as part of the writing team for Between The Lions. A Moose That Says Moo is her first children's book. She lives in Houston, Texas.

Sue Truesdell has illustrated many children's books over her two-decade career, including Betsy Byars's I Can Read! series about the adventuresome Golly Sisters and Chicken Said, "Cluck!" by Judyann Ackerman Grant, winner of a Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor in 2009.

Editorial Reviews

This one is as much fun as it sounds, and it will find a regular spot in the storytime rotation.” —Booklist

“In this debut picture book, a little girl imagines a zoo with no cages and an assortment of uniquely talented animals.” —School Library Journal

“* Infectious good fun.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“* Amusing illustrations perfectly reflect the spirit of the story.” —Starred Review / Kirkus Reviews (on CHICKEN SAID, "CLUCK!" by Judyann Ackerman Grant)

“Perfectly silly.” —Kirkus Reviews (on THIS IS A HOSPITAL, NOT A ZOO by Roberta Karim)

“Splendidly doggish . . . Dog lovers of all ages will run in circles for this loving, funny celebration of the human-canine relationship.” —AMAZON.COM (on HOW TO TALK TO A DOG by Jean Craighead George)

“Truesdell's got a gift for casually cockeyed canines: there's a Feifferesque touch to her scrawled lines, and her panoply of pooches are expressive in the extreme with their motion lines and flying ears (the collection on the endpapers will send dogophiles into sighs of yearning).” —The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (on HOW TO TALK TO A DOG by Jean Craighead George)

From the Publisher

09/01/2013
PreS-Gr 2—In this debut picture book, a little girl imagines a zoo with no cages and an assortment of uniquely talented animals. After securing a moose that makes cow noises, she would gather sharks that read underwater and an ox that cooks. Bears would drive cars, and the sheep would take bubble baths. Children will giggle at the wild creatures' antics. As day turns to night, a pillow fight and a misdirected throw of dough cause the denizens to get out of control. "Looking around I would quickly assess,/this zoo that I grew was a zoo-rific mess!" She is able to calm down the chaos, but as the last page demonstrates, not her imagination. Truesdell's cartoon illustrations center around the animals' unexpected behaviors. Perfect for storytimes that explore make-believe worlds.—Tanya Boudreau, Cold Lake Public Library, AB, Canada

School Library Journal

A little girl with her nose in a book and toys scattered about conjures up a zoo filled with zaniness and mixed-up mayhem. She is sitting on the grass in her backyard with her beagle close by. Delightedly, the two watch as an assortment of animals moves in. Her moose moos, her skunks jump rope, and her sheep "take baths full of bubbles and soap." A zebra and ape dance on a picnic table, and pigs perform a tap-dance show. Spillage and breakage abound. Noisily oinking otters and chirping chipmunks cavort. Fish scribble with crayons as they swim, and groundhogs march with picket signs held high. Sharp-eyed readers will find visual clues to upcoming hijinks. At last, one pooped girl puts everything to rights--or does she? Hamburg's debut picture book scans and rhymes in the best read-aloud fashion. Truesdell's pen-and-ink and watercolor art, as always, presents an amusing and lively panoply of animals in high mischief mode. One double-page spread, set at nighttime, features some bears sprawled comfortably asleep on toy cars while sheep engage in a pillow fight with flitting and floating feathers that can "wake up a sound-asleep goat." Infectious good fun. (Picture book 3-8)

Kirkus Reviews