Heaps of fun is to be had in reading kiwi team Juliette MacIver and Jenny Cooper’s The Moose and the Goose. Rhyming text carries you on a journey as the characters board a train, squeeze in the packed-full caboose and meet various other characters doing slightly ridiculous things.
I’m liking
The layout of the text is really fun, using different sizes and boldness to emphasise certain words. The pictures are full of expression and attitude. My son loves trains so the fact that the action is centered around a train ride is perfect. The ending is pretty unique and funny (and slightly bizarre!).
Things that made me go hmmmm
You might need to read it through a number of times before you can make a flawless delivery of the text out loud – such is the nature of the many, many similar rhyming words. Sometimes the pace of the action is pretty quick which adds to the confusion of getting everything out and still making the text clear so the course of events can be followed. This book is therefore perhaps better suited to a child learning to read for themselves, however if you mastered the text it could make for a very animated storytime in a classroom or at home setting.
The conclusion
This is a lovely picture book well suited to approximately a 4-8 age group, though younger kids will still enjoy the pictures but are likely to miss the subtleties of the text. If your child is learning to read and coming to grips with the concept of how words rhyme, then this book will be a humourous way to help them in their understanding.
The Moose and the Goose is published by Scholastic.
