Louise Bradford

Wade is a young moose who loves playing with his friends. When he realizes one fall morning that his antlers are "wiggly" he is worried. He does not want them to fall off because he uses them for so many different things. He decides that if he is very careful, they will not fall off. He stops playing with his friends and sits on the sidelines. His mother explains to him that he will grow new ones in the spring, but he is still afraid. As he sits and watches his friends, he realizes that he is missing out on a lot of things, so he jumps back in to playing with his friends and decides that if they fall off, that is fine.

The message in this book is that Wade has to learn to accept that he is growing up and that with growing up comes change. He also realizes that change just might not be so bad after all. He has a lot of fun when he has no antlers, in fact he can do some things he could not do before, like win at "hide and seek". The illustrations in this children's book are wonderful. I love how the different animals are depicted. They are not completely realistic, but not too stylized that they are unrecognizable. They show expressions well and have a lot of colour and activity in them. This would be a great book to have in a family library to use with the little ones as they are growing up as well as in school and community libraries. The publisher generously provided me with a copy of this book via netgalley.

… (mehr)

A young moose loses his antlers and contends with all the challenges that change can bring, particularly in the young. Although this little moose worries about shedding his antlers, trying desperately to hold onto them, his mother gently reminds him that this is a natural part of growing up. Through his struggles to hold onto his antlers, worries about how he will change without them, and whether he will grow new ones, readers can imagine themselves and the natural changes that development can bring as a child. While children will undoubtedly identify with the playful allegory of a moose losing his antlers, the illustrations were not always additive.

This would be a good book to read-aloud and spark discussion about bodies changing with development and the uncertainty that might accompany these unexpected transitions. While I enjoyed the approach to discussing apprehension and unavoidable changes, the illustrations left me wishing for more. It may have been the digital approach to collage, but sometimes I found the the patterns distracting. Rather than focus on the cartoon creatures presented as his friends, I was trying to focus the patterns and confirming that it was the pattern out of focus and not my eyes. This may have been a way to add depth to the pages and other readers may delight in the bright palate, patterns, and humorous characterization of the animals.… (mehr)