The Family Bookshelf
By Bob Walch
"The Lonely Moose"
(Hyperion) by John Segal
The Audience: Children ages 4-7 will enjoy this story. This picture book is appropriate for bedtime reading and works well with beginning readers. (40 pages)
The Issue: The importance of friends, how a good friend can be a special gift and what happens when you lose a friend.
The Contents: Although Moose is quite happy with his solitary existence, one day a bird who is unable to fly comes into his life. Even though he sings and talks all day and is a bit of an irritation at first, Moose and Bird become fast friends.
Then one day disaster strikes when a forest fire separates the two companions. As the seasons change, a distraught Moose must become use to the fact his feathery friend is apparently gone.
Poor Moose's fondest wish is to be reunited with his noisy former companion. Happily, that wish is granted in a manner that will be a surprise to both Moose and the reader.
The Message: This picture book about a very unlikely friendship emphasizes the idea that a friend can make one's life fuller. It also underscores the importance of giving a relationship time to develop and suggests that sometimes "opposites" do attract.
Before retiring from the classroom, Bob Walch taught English in Santa Barbara and Carmel for 39 years. His reviews of children's literature appear in Central Coast newspapers and online at the Reading Tub, Roundtable Reviews and My Shelf.
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