THE BALLAD OF WILBUR AND THE MOOSE

Originally published in 1989 and billed here as new and revised (though evidently not enough to update the copyright year), this somewhat tall Western yarn recounts the exploits of young Wilbur Little, a lime-juice-loving pig-herder who takes on a crooked gambler and then a set of rustlers with help from his ex-pugilist blue moose, Alvin. Though the rhyming tends toward pedestrian and the rhythm sometimes makes a break for freedom—“The moose, his name was Alvin, / A heavyweight boxer, they say, / Who knocked out everyone he fought, / And then called it a day.”—the relentlessly oddball plot and clean-lined, firmly tongue-in-cheek cartoon illustrations will carry young readers and listeners along to the final warning: “Don’t laugh out loud or point, my friend, / Just move on slow down south, / Or you’ll find you’re full of lime juice / With a moose punch in your mouth!” Sung in a frame story by a cowpoke named Whiskers, his snoozing companions at the end make their own, unvoiced comment. Yup, a real knee-slapper. (Picture book. 7-9)