Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Salem Main Library | JP Rosoff | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Independence Public Library | J PICTURE BOOK - ROSOFF | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... West Salem Branch Library | JP Rosoff | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
When he first arrives, everyone is expecting the usual kind of baby. But right away, his family notices there's something different about this one. Instead of two feet, he has four hooves. Instead of drinking milk, he eats twigs and weeds. Instead of a tiny human, they bring home a moose baby! With his long legs, silky ears, and sturdy antlers, the moose baby is admired everywhere he goes. Everyone wishes they had a moose baby too. But what will happen when he starts to outgrow their little home?
Here's a delightfully quirky and completely irresistible new sibling picture book about the true meaning of family and the power of love to transcend any difference.
Author Notes
Meg Rosoff was born in Boston, Massachusetts on October 16, 1956. She studied at Harvard University, but left for England in 1977 to take classes at Central St. Martin's College of Art and Design. She returned to finish her degree in English and fine arts at Harvard University. She worked in New York City for 10 years in publishing and advertising, before moving to England.
Her first novel, How I Live Now, was published in 2004 and won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. Her other novels include What I Was, The Bride's Farewell, There Is No Dog, Moose Baby, and Picture Me Gone. Just in Case won the 2007 Carnegie Medal. She won the 2016 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. She is also the author of a picture book entitled Meet Wild Boars and co-author of a non-fiction book entitled London Guide: Your Passport to Great Travel.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
The new baby is adorable, but unlike the rest of his human family, he's also a moose--with tiny antlers, a big brown nose, and "four perfect hooves." Nevertheless, the family's love is instant and unconditional: "I felt sad for the other babies. They all looked the same," says the narrator, his older sister, as they leave the hospital. When passersby stare and point, she asserts, "they wish they had a baby like ours." But unconditional love also means doing what's best for their "baby" when the growing moose can no longer live a human life--when the house begins to feel too small, and the creature sings sad songs night after night. In a circuitous route across a double spread, the family travels to the mountainous woods, and after sniffing and tasting the new place, the moose gallops away with a new moose friend. Rosoff (the McTavish series) and Ercolini (Not Inside This House!) start with a goofy what-if--the improbable digitized tempera vignettes and the moose's Harpo-like reactions are designed to elicit giggles--but deepen their story into something much more: one about how loving families stick together, embrace radical acceptance, and know when to let go. Ages 3--7. (Apr.)
Kirkus Review
Moose in the forest or moose in the zoo are OK, but a moose in the house?Baby's room is all ready for the new sibling, but, as Sis tells the story, the baby has a few differences from other newborns in the hospital. He has "velvety soft skin and big brown eyes." His diet is a little different, his nose is a lot bigger, and so are his feet. Nonetheless, he is loved and nurtured. Neighbors are jealous, and classmates all want "a moose baby." As happens with babies, this one grows, but his growth is astonishing. Toys, bathtubs, and finally the house itself shrink in size by comparison. Reluctantly, the family maps out a trip to a forest where their (enormous) baby moose finds an inviting environment and new friends of his own sort. He does send his love in a postcard. Rosoff's little tale of interspecies family love should bring a laugh or two to young readers, juxtaposing as it does the absurdity of a very large member of the deer family residing in a human abode. Ercolini's cartoon illustrations convey this quite aptly with their emphasis on height and an elongated perspective. The softly hued colors are inviting and feature people of various shades and a moose of brown hide and yellow antlers (the human members of the moose's family of origin are white). A lesson in animal care told with love and humor. (Picture book. 3-6) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
"When our new baby arrived, he had velvety soft skin and big brown eyes. He ate twigs and weeds." Unconditional acceptance forms the central theme in this droll tale of a doting (human) family that coos over its newest (hooved!) member in the maternity ward and then wheels him home to feed, dress, and fuss over. Moosie does grow, though, as moose do, and so when he becomes too big for the house, they venture into the wilderness to hook him up with a four-legged friend. (The first postcard arrives a week later.) Though the startled expressions of neighbors and passersby in Ercolini's bright, neatly drawn cartoon illustrations turn into a sort of running joke, most everyone from maternity ward staff to the teachers and children in school just take Moosie in stride. It doesn't require much insight to see Moosie as a stand-in for any child with physical (or other) differences, but rather than exploit the metaphor, Rosoff and the illustrator are content to stop with the very first step of all.