by Moe Zilla

Created on: February 26, 2010   Last Updated: December 31, 2011

The Hodag is a 40-foot creature with eyes glowing like fire. "It had the head of an ox, feet of a bear, back of a dinosaur, and tail of an alligator." If this sounds like a scary campfire tale, maybe that's because it is. The Hodag is a creature from the local folklore of Wisconsin, and as a child author Caroline Arnold heard the stories when she went to a Wisconsin summer camp. So in an author's note at the back of the book, she describes this story as "an original story based on traditional characters..."

"The Hodag looked mighty scary, but the lumberjacks were not afraid," Arnold writes. "They knew that the Hodag was their friend..." Instead they point the giant monster to a patch of blueberries - the monster's favorite. In gratitude, the monster fells the trees with his enormous dragon-like tail.

But soon the sun is setting - and the illustrator shows the tiny lumberjacks moving under the giant black silhouettes of trees along the horizon. In fact, I was impressed by the book's stark layout, which creates an ominous tone through some very simple touches. While the images are black and white, there are red letters in the first sentence of every page. And another strange red symbol marks the break between paragraphs. One page even ends with a picture of the Hodag's footprint!

Soon some "animal catchers" arrive to cart the Hodag to the zoo, and the illustrator makes another valuable contribution. He draws the trio as hopeless city slickers - all three wearing glasses, with one holding a butterfly net! But my favorite illustration shows the lumberjacks working to sabotage the hunt. In a two-page spread, they're shown riding the back of the Hodag as the 40-foot creature tramps through the forest under the light of a silvery moon. There's the moon in the sky, then the dark silhouette of a row of trees - but the lumberjacks glow white in the moonlight while they ride on the Hodag's back!

All the footsteps foil the animal catchers, but their next trick might work, since they've built a Hodag-catching pit filled with blueberries. But in the end, the trio fall into the pit themselves and have to beg for the lumberjacks to intervene on their behalf. The story ends peacefully, with the wild animal safe in nature where he belongs. The only thing scary in the book is a final two-page spread of the Hodag's mouth - but fortunately, he's just stuffing it with blueberries!

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