MOOSE TALES

A new moose is on the block, and so are his woodland friends, in this collection of three easy-to-read stories from Van Laan (So Say the Little Monkeys, 1998, etc.). Moose, Beaver, Mouse, Rabbit, and Squirrel are the stars; in the liveliest story, “A Fine Day for a Walk,” Moose travels from friend to friend in an effort to find a walking companion, and wears himself out in the process. In “Stuck,” Beaver is accidentally trapped under a felled tree. After many and various false attempts, Moose comes to the rescue. “The Snow Creature” employs a standard device; each friend contributes one telling attribute to a snowman. The humor in the text hardly emerges from the illustrations, e.g., the snow creature is disappointingly sedate in appearance. The flat perspectives found in the line drawings are more amateurish than deliberately skewed, and the animals lack personality. The text helps guide new readers through the pages, but the illustrations provide few rewards. (Fiction. 6-9)