About this book

Munsch and Martchenko turn their creative attention on a moose — with hilarious results!

Luke gets up early one Saturday morning and finds a moose in the backyard. He wakes up his dad, and then his mom, and each declares that "moose never come on the farm" — only to be surprised by the moose itself!

Mom tries to shoo it away with a broom — but the moose eats it. Dad tries to scare it away with a hose — but the moose takes a nice bath. Luke feeds the moose carrots and decides to keep it in his treehouse, until his sister comes along, with a surprising solution to this unusual problem!

Moose! was inspired by a young boy from Cape Breton Island.

Behind the scenes

Robert Munsch first told this version of the story in 1987 in Geraldton, Ontario, where some of the cars that came for his show had dead moose on them. He kept telling it all through Northern Ontario, where he was on tour. It became one of his favourite stories to tell, and it had LOTS of different versions. There was an Inuit version where the animal is a caribou. There was a Northern Ontario version where the animal is a moose and the kid wants to keep it for a pet, a Toronto version where the animal is a raccoon and the kid calls the police, a Texas version where the animal is an armadillo, and a Prairies version where the animal is a buffalo. Finally, Munsch’s publisher wanted to make the story into a book. But the story had no kid! Luckily he remembered a kid named Luke who had sent him a wonderful letter about his “tree house,” which was strangely not in a tree. Munsch made up a brand new version of the Moose story for Luke and his family.

Extras

Check out The World of Munsch for more books, a checklist and fun stuff!