Marymoose meets Thidwick the Moose! (Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose - Dr Seuss)

Member Name: marymoose

Product:	Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose - Dr Seuss
Date:	18/05/09 (176 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent children's book, moose, lessons to be learned

Disadvantages: None !

---Intro---

A review of the Dr. Seuss book "The Cat in the Hat" prompted me to venture upstairs to the Moosery (aka the Spare Room) to my extensive moose book collection to find the best Dr. Seuss book of all time "Thidwick The Big-Hearted Moose".

Imagine my joy, my absolute delight when I found that no-one had written a review on either Ciao or dooyoo, so I had no choice but to read the book and write a glowing review. Admittedly the review which follows was written following two bottles of wine...


---Moose and moose books---

Those who know me, and even those who don't will probably have an idea that I am somewhat obsessed with moose (and just to point out at the onset that the plural of moose is moose), hence my username marymoose.

This discussion is not irrelevant to the book in question (so halt there with any negative ratings!), because along with my moose obsession came my discovery of Amazon. For the purpose of this review I am going back to Amazon to look at my history, and an interesting history it makes - anyone looking at my history of purchases will notice that I have a somewhat unhealthy obsession with both moose and self-harm - an interesting combination, but not obsessions which really interlink as far as I know. I wonder sometimes what Amazon must think of me...

It turns out that the book "Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose" was part of my second EVER Amazon order, back in February 2002, along with a book for one of my courses at University. This is very significant really as it is the first moose book which I bought online and probably I think the third moose book in my collection - today I have at least 60 moose books - a collection of children's stories and fiction books including my latest which is a 700 page epic about moose in North America which I'm wading through! A lot of these have been bought from the wonders of Amazon.


---The book in question---

"Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose" retails at £4.99, but I paid £3.99 (new) - an absolute bargain really for what it is, although not as 'bargainous' (my new word for the day) as my 700 page hard-back moose epic which cost just £6.44 including P & P (don't fear, a review will follow next year when I've read it).

"Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose" was first published in 1948, but my HarperCollins Children's Books edition was published in 1990.


---Dr. Seuss---

I'm not going to give a great history of Dr. Seuss - I know nothing about him. Well tell a lie, I've just Googled him, and skim-read the Wikipedia entry - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Seuss Alternatively you could visit http://www.seussville.com/

Apparently the book was made into a Russian film - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welcome_(1986_film)

I was hoping it might be up on YouTube or something, but all I could find was a dodgy song about Thidwick to the tune of "Ice Ice Baby!" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLbcW7MK6_I Actually it's pretty good - it tells the whole story of Thidwick - brilliant stuff, not too sure about the video though! "Thidwick Baby...The Moose!"


---Anyway, onto the book....---

As you can see from dooyoo's picture (dooyoo use the correct picture unlike Ciao who choose to illustrate my review with a picture of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears") the front cover is a typical Dr. Seuss illustration, a simple drawing of a moose and simple colours (red, blue, black and white)....quite a feminine looking moose really, although it has antlers so Thidwick is evidently a boy moose. Distinctively Dr. Seuss.

Open the book and there's a double paged spread picture of Thidwick, then onto the title page, a dedication, "Extra Moose Moss for Helen" (lucky Helen is all I can say)!

The story itself is 38 pages...much longer than it initially seems, and it is a good length really - most pages have 4-8 short lines of text on them.


---The Story---

When I first got the book I remember subjecting hubby (then boyfriend) to it, reading out loud the tale to him in bed one night.

The tale begins:
"Up at Lake Winna-Bango...the far northern shore...
Lives a huge herd of moose, about sixty or more,
And they all go around in a big happy bunch
Looking for nice tender moose-moss to munch."

Of course anyone who knows anything about moose will know that moose are solitary animals - they do not go around in herds. There is also no such thing as moose-moss (no matter how much I would like there to be) - the word moose actually derives from the Native American Indian word meaning "twig-eater" - but they generally like to eat any vegetation, but I've never heard of moose-moss!

So, we've established that the book is not true to life...but this does not stop it from being one of the best moose books in the world - ever!
Thidwick is obsessed with this moose-moss (and quite frankly who wouldn't be if such a thing existed?), but then a Bingle Bug comes along and wants a ride on Thidwick's antlers. Of course Thidwick has a big heart so is happy to oblige. And thus the story commences....

Gradually more and more animals join the Bingle Bug in making a home in Thidwick's antlers...Thidwick doesn't like it, but he is a polite moose, and the animals are his guests after all. But as a result the other moose don't want anything to do with Thidwick anymore.

I'm not going to say anymore about the story as that would spoil it. But it really is a lovely (albeit sad at times) tale, and thought-provoking even for the adults among us who aren't moose-obsessed.


---Lessons to be learned---

I love the way that children's books have lessons to be learned, and this book is an excellent one. Basically, the lessons are as follows:

*Don't take advantage of moose
*Don't overstay your welcome at a moose party
*Moose shouldn't be so nice and accommodating
*Humans can be nasty to moose
*Selfishness and Selflessness (this is what it says on the back on the book)
*What goes around comes around - I like to believe that one even though I'm still waiting for some things to come around to certain people...


---The style---

The whole book is written as a rhyme as Dr. Seuss books are, and it's extremely easy to read out loud. I really can't wait to have children to read this story to! It's just a pleasure to read...even when re-reading the book for this review I've read it aloud - I'm on my own in the house, but even so, it just doesn't have the same impact reading it silently.

It is certainly aimed at adults reading to their children rather than for children to read themselves. A more able child would be able to read it and get the rhyming right with practice, but a book like this is more of a fun and interactive story. I would suggest that if possible a parent/carer reads it through themselves first to get the rhythm before 'performing' for the kids!
Personally I would think (and I have to admit that I don't have children yet and don't really know much about this sort of thing) that as a bed time story it would appeal to various ages...perhaps not really young children, but I can imagine myself liking it being read to be at the age of 3 and at 10 (if the parent/carer has a good delivery).


---Illustrations---

Every page is illustrated, very simple pictures with simple colours - green, black and orange...perhaps some children today might not like this simple approach....I don't really know. Perhaps these books aren't to everyone's tastes. But there is a lot of detail I the pictures and I think smaller children might really like this.

If you really want you can visit my review on Ciao to see pictures of the pictures!


---Final Remarks---

Personally I can't wait to have children so that I can read this book to them (and of course all my other moose books - expect LOTS of reviews). It's funny, because normally I don't think I would be recommending an American author for children's books (due to spelling and grammatical errors).

However, Dr. Seuss seems to be slightly different...I haven't yet come across a children's author in the UK who can write rhyming stories quite like that...and really, although this book is now 51 years old, you really wouldn't know it!

Summary: Come for a ride with Thidwick and Marymoose....