This Moose Belongs to Me [Hardcover]

From the illustrator of the #1 smash hitThe Day the Crayons Quitcomes the age-old tale of a boy and his moose . . .

Wilfred is a boy with rules. He lives a very orderly life. It's fortunate, then, that he has a pet who abides by rules, such as not making noise while Wilfred educates him on his record collection. There is, however, one rule that Wilfred's pet has difficulty following: Going whichever way Wilfred wants to go. Perhaps this is because Wilfred's pet doesn't quite realize that he belongs to anyone.

A moose can be obstinate in such ways.

Fortunately, the two manage to work out a compromise. Let's just say it involves apples.

Oliver Jeffers, the bestselling creator ofStuckandThe Incredible Book Eating Boy, delivers another deceptively simple book sure to make kids giggle. It won’t take readers long to see that Wilfred has moose problems. He tries hard to make Marcel the moose obey his many rules ('Rule 7 [subsection b]: Maintaining a certain proximity to home'), but Marcel is only vaguely interested in Wilfred. What he really likes are apples. Wilfred’s role as moose owner is further cast into doubt when a random old lady greets Marcel as Rodrigo. 'You’re back!' she cries. (Marcel reacts warmly, but only because she has an apple.) Eventually, Wilfred is able to recognize Marcel’s independence; it’s a useful and unexpectedly heartwarming lesson in lowered expectations. Nervous Wilfred is dressed in a geeky bowtie and suspenders, while Marcel is the size of a garden shed, with antlers like towel racks. What really ups the ante are Jeffers’s (Stuck) incongruously grandiose backdrops. Wilfred’s struggle plays out against dawn-kissed mountain ranges, brooding spruces, and sweeping American plains, giving the proceedings an air of faux-solemn dignity that’s hilariously at odds with Wilfred’s dorky personality. The moose may not belong to Wilfred, bl£­