Maxwell Moose loves camping out and making s'mores and telling spooky stories. But what if Maxwell's imaginary Mountain Monster stories aren't as imaginary as he thought?
July 1, 2012
K-Gr 2-Maxwell Moose and his friends Mitzi Mouse and Murphy Muskrat are enjoying the last camping trip of the summer. They roast s'mores around the campfire, and Maxwell starts to tell how the Mountain Monster loves looking for mouse fingers and muskrat toes. Everyone, including Maxwell, gets scared when they hear a loud noise in the woods. It turns out to be Mama Moose who is bringing mittens, earmuffs, oatmeal muffins, and mushroom soup for them. This volume in the series written by Barbara deRuberts emphasizes the letter "m." The story will appeal to young children who are working on letter sounds, but the vocabulary is too challenging for very early readers. The author's narration is clear but somewhat flat. Page-turn signals are optional. Children will enjoy the slightly scary story and the reassuring fact that the Mountain Monster turns out to be Mama Moose.-Teresa Wittmann, Westgate Elementary, Edmonds, WA
Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
July 1, 2011
Though a couple of the story lines aren't so bad, the gimmick of packing the books with words that include the featured letter makes for a disjointed, distracting reading experience (varying where the letter sound appears in the word helps somewhat). Alley's illustrations try their best to downplay the animal mania. Unnecessary last-page features include animal facts and phonemic awareness activities.
(Copyright 2011 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)