Recent Reads: The Little Moose Who Couldn't Go To Sleep by Willy Claflin

The Little Moose Who Couldn’t Go To Sleep: A Maynard Moose Tale

By Willy Claflin and James Stimson (Illustrator)

Publication Date: January 6, 2013

Publisher: August House LittleFolk

 

Format: Ebook

Source: Netgalley and August House

Genre: Children’s Books/ Youth

Goodreads Synopsis:

From the award winning creative team who brought you The Uglified Ducky, winner of the 2011 Texas Bluebonnet Award, Rapunzel and the Seven Dwarfs, and The Bully Goat Grim comes the fourth fractured fairy tale from Maynard Moose. The Little Moose Who Couldn’t go to Sleep practically named itself. Part cautionary tale, part travelogue, Little Moose will take you places no moose has been before, well except Mother Moose. Never mind that. If you want to do well in school, impress your parents and show up your siblings, a good night’s sleep is essential. So grab a cup of tea, hang on for a ride into space and learn the secret of, uh, of MAHHH Dingy-Ding!

Includes a Moose / English glossary to help everyone follow the action.

Review:
My Rating:

The Little Moose is about a child moose that is having trouble sleeping and cannot get to school and function. It is about how the little moose deals with her inability to fall asleep and the various mind-controlling things she thinks about as she is falling asleep that keep her awake. I think that the author is making a play on the Old Mother Goose stories and calling them the Old Mother Moose stories, which I think is adorable and I love Moose. I am currently living in Vermont and someday I will see one (from afar hopefully).

This was an adorable story of problem-solving and helping kids find ways to fall asleep, but there were a few things that I think my be a problem. Some of the things that I loved were the beautiful, vibrant colors and pictures. I loved seeing the little moose and all the things she was thinking about at night.

Some of the quirkiness of the book is the glossary of Moose-speak, where the author teaches the reader the definition of made-up words and uses throughout the book. Some are interesting and fun ways of saying words, others really are just baby talk like “bankee” for blanket, “purpee” for purple. Moose speak throughout the story is a little strange, the author warns you about it, but also as an adult reading this to a child (or a child reading it) it may encourage improper speech for kids being entertained by reading it. I know that some books use this to relate to small children and maybe that works well.

I am not a parent yet, I only have young siblings, so I am not sure of the impact of this type of writing/reading on the younger populations.

Overall it was a fun book, the colors are wonderful, the illustrations are imaginative and fun (any kid will love them) and the story is adorable and teaches young that counting sheep may help put them to sleep.

Disclaimer: This ebook was received from the publisher through netgalley and in no way effects the review above.