Wednesday, June 1, 2011

#75 - Honk the Moose by Phil Stong


1936 Honor book

"Two small boys had been huntingon the outskirts of a little Minnesota town one cold winter's day. They skied back to the livery stable where Ivar's father boarded horses and mules, and Waino pinged his air rifle at a fence. 'I wish,' he said dreamily, 'that had been a good old moose I shot.' Ivar then fired his air gun down the corridor between the stalls to show what he would have done. All at once there was a very sad sound. It went 'Haawwnnk-hawnk-hawnk-haawwnnkk!' The two boys dropped everything.

'What do you think that is?' Ivar asked. 'Maybe it was a moose,' Waino replied softly.

And it was a moose - though it was a while before Ivar's father or Mr. Ryan, the policeman, or the Mayor or any of the townspeople believed it.But what do you do with a moose?What can you do with a moose? Honk was hungry. He ate about a ton of Ivar's father's expensive hay. Then he went to sleep. Something had to be done, but Honk was naturally such a sad moose, you couldn't help feeling sorry for him."

It is interesting to me the changes throughout the years of what makes an award winning book. More recent award winners tackle a lot of really tough topics. But books like this were so simple and innocent! Cute story. My son actually read it before me, and he really liked it too! I guess the simple books can still appeal to today's kids!

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