The Moogees Move House

by Leslie McGuirk, Leslie McGuirk (Illustrator)

Overview

Leslie McGuirk spins the story of a very particular family in search of a home, with lively verse and quirky illustrations.

The Moogees want very much to find a new home. Mama Moogee says, "We need a new place that is on the ground. It would be nice if it were round." Papa Moogee adds, "I’d love to find a home with class, a nice wide yard, and plenty of grass." But the three little Moogies just scream, "WAA WAA MOOGEE DOOGEE WEE WEE LOW LUM!" Mr. Ruru, the real estate agent, tries hard to help them find the perfect place, but the Moogees think all the houses are too blue, too expensive, or look like a piece of cheese. Will they ever find a house to call their own? As the Moogees discover, the family you share it with is the most important part!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763655587
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	11/13/2012
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	7.20(w) x 10.50(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Leslie McGuirk is the author-illustrator of several books about Tucker the dog. She is also the illustrator and co-author, with Alex von Bidder, of Wiggens Learns His Manners at the Four Seasons Restaurant. Leslie McGuirk lives in Vero Beach, Florida.

Editorial Reviews

Stories about moving are a dime a dozen, but not McGuirk’s; although the plot is straightforward, the hallucinatory strangeness of the cast and setting will leave an indelible, Moogee-shaped mark on readers. With yellow polka-dotted skin, curled snouts, and pronged tails resembling toy jacks, the Moogees look like the product of the psychedelic art movement. When they go in search of a new house with Mr. Ruru, the realtor, they have trouble finding the ideal fit. One house offers a yard full of bizarre statues and a free pet snail, seen leashed to an orange and blue tree. “This yard and snail are quite delightful,” says Mama Moogee, “but those statues are truly frightful” (she’s right, too: the expressions on the statues’ faces range from uncomfortable to psychotic). Of course, young readers will be most interested in screaming along with the three young Moogees, as they express their unintelligible opinion of each house: “Waa waa moogee doogee wee wee low lum!” Despite the willful weirdness, McGuirk’s (the Tucker series) story has a conventional “family first” message at its core. Annoyingly great or greatly annoying? Maybe some of both. Ages 3–6. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

Tailor-made for reading aloud.
—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

K-Gr 1—A family of Moogees, piglike yellow creatures with spots and rolled-under noses, is searching for a new house. A realtor takes them to see a series of possible homes: a blue, castlelike affair with eight chimneys and a yukie-yukie tree, a green one with a statue-lined driveway, and a third in the shape of a wedge of cheese. Mama and Papa Moogee's complaints are expressed in two-line rhymes. "Of course, this house will never do./I'm not particularly fond of blue." The children's response is always, "Waa waa moogee doogee wee wee low lum!" With trepidation, the realtor offers a fourth house that turns out to be perfect. And with the successful sale, he figures out that the children's chant means, "We'll be happy anywhere/as long as we've got our family there!" How he does that is never made clear. The illustrations are spare, done with markers and black outline on a white background. Although the point of family togetherness is made, there's nothing special here to carry the predictable story.—Ieva Bates, Ann Arbor District Library, MI

School Library Journal