Honk the Moose

Remember my photo of the moose in the tree at our house?
How that came about is in my recent post
There’s a Moose on the Loose.    I told you that it reminded
me of a book called Honk the Moose.  And that’s kind of an
interesting story . . .Here’s the moose in our tree—see him?

a moose in the tree!©booksandbuttons

And now I’ll tell you a little
bit about the old storybook called
Honk the Moose.
First of all, it was a Newberry Honors Book in 1936; and
was winner of the Lewis Carol Shelf Award in 1970; and
Cattermole’s 100 Best Children’s Books of the 20th Century.

Quite impressive!  The story was written by Phil Stong and the
book was illustrated by Kurt Wiese (and THAT’s what is
special to me).

It’s about a small town in Minnesota in the wintertime and two
little boys discover a wild moose in the stable with the horse.
They name him Honk for the noise that he makes all the time.

There’s debate from the townspeople and farmers about how
to “deal” with him and that’s what makes a story, hm?

A long time ago I was teaching fourth grade in a little town in
Wisconsin.  I read the book aloud to my class.  They loved it.

from Honk the Moose by
Phil Stong, illus Kurt Wiese ©booksandbuttons

“Honk” from Honk the
Moose by Phil Stong, illus by Kurt Wiese ©booksandbuttons

They liked it so much we decided to write to Mr. Stong and Mr. Wiese to tell
them.

Well, lo! and behold! we received a letter back from Kurt Wiese!—and he
even illustrated the letter with a fine drawing of Honk!  What fun!

letter from Kurt Wiese ©booksandbuttons CLICK TO ENLARGE

The letter says: “Frenchtown, NJ
April 5, 1964

Dear (    )
Thank you and your class for the
lovely letters which you wrote to
me and Mr. Stong about our book
“Honk the Moose.”
We enjoyed them so very much.
Sincerely, Kurt Wiese

I really treasure that old letter—isn’t it sweet?

I highly recommend reading the book, too!