Willy Claflin

I so often wish that the illustrations and the text in picture books could be separated out into different books. I love James Stimson's illustrations for The Little Moose Who Couldn't Go to Sleep, and the plot of the story isn't that bad, but I do not like the way in which the book is written at all.

Readers are warned "This book contains moose grammar, spelling, and usage, all of which has been known to scrumble up the human brain," which led me to expect a fun or quirky writing style. Instead, the "moose speak" reminds me of the baby-talk some grown-ups use to speak to toddlers. The words are close enough to English words (or, in some cases, they are English words but used for different purposes than their true definitions) that, instead of being funny, it just winds up teaching kids improper English. Claflin's concept of "moose speak" isn't bad, but I do think his execution of it is.

Note: I received a digital copy of this book through NetGalley.… (més)

This picture book open with a question that is posed to the reader. The Uglified ducking attempts to connect to the reader by asking if they have ever felt like they did not belong. The story goes on to tell of how the main character is treated like all of the other ducklings and is trained in all things duck. Despite his attempts to be a duck, he fails. The beautiful part of this story is that the Uglified Ducking finds out who he truly is and joins the group of moose who welcome him and teaches him to love himself. This story would be great to teach SEL. Instructors can use this book to build confidence in students. This book can also be used to teach onomatopoeia in third grade during ELA.… (més)