by Moe Zilla

Created on: March 12, 2010

"Parental warning! This book contains moose grammar, spelling, and usage, all of which have been known to scrumble up the human brain!"

"The Uglified Duckling" is, after all, a Maynard Moose Tale "as told to Willy Clafin" (according to the book's cover). The inside cover explains that the author "spent much of his life wandering through the Northern Piney Woods, transcribing the songs and stories of the North American Moose." It sounds like a tall tale, and it won't be the first. According to the book's jacket, Mr. Clafin is frequently seen spinning stories about Maynard the Moose at the National Storytelling Festival.

There's an intimidating moose glossary before the story even starts - but most of the story is actually in perfect English. ("Far away in the Northern Piney Woods there lives a storyteller named Maynard Moose…") All the other forest animals gather every full moon to hear retellings of familiar Mother Moose Tales. "Young and old, big and small, fur and feather, the woodland creatures gather round and settle down on moss and branch and log to listen…" And then the moose dialect begins.

"Do you ever feel like maybe you have been borned into the wrong fambly? Like maybe you feel like you are a little porcupine being raised by a fambly of kangaroos - boing! Boing! And the mommy kangaroo does not like to have you in her pouch - ow! Ow!"

It must be difficult for an oral storyteller to try to reproduce their technique just with written words. But leaving nothing to chance, there's also a ten-minute CD at the back of the book, letting you hear the story as performed by Willy Claflin himself. He tells the story of a baby moose who naps by a nest of ducks - and gets mistaken for a duckling himself. His parents are never seen throughout the rest of the book, which means that, unfortunately, the moose is going to be raised by ducks.

The illustrations are colorful and original, created by James Stimson (one of the animators on Pixar's James and the Giant Peach.) "This reclusive artist is believed to be a large hairy biped with enormous feet," the book's jacket notes, though they're just playing up the moose context one more time. They spend a lot of time building up the bogus credibility for the story which you'll eventually get to read.  But in the end it's a funny and well-written take on a familiar old story. And the moose finds his way to a happy ending after all.

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