Book Review: Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose

By Robyn Raymer

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What Parents Should Know
Readers will instantly side with poor, put-upon Thidwick (whose misery is depicted in expressive, funny cartoons). They'll love to hate the freeloading "guests" who load down the kind moose's antlers. Witty, bouncy rhyming text with near-perfect meter models excellent language skills. Honors hospitality and condemns taking advantage of generosity, but advocates vindictiveness. Some information about antlers.

Common Sense Media Review
Thidwick the moose is a lovable Dr. Seuss character akin to the hero of the author's Horton Hatches the Egg and Horton Hears a Who. Both are large, kindly guys who are in touch with their nurturing, feminine sides, and each suffers for his generosity and steadfastness.

One of the funniest and best aspects of THIDWICK is Dr. Seuss's expressive manner of rendering the moose's misery. As the Zinn-a-zu bird plucks out Thidwick's hairs (one by painful one, 204 in all) for a nest, the poor animal's squinched-shut eyes, flattened ears, and furrowed brow make readers wince and laugh at the same time. And when the moose moss on the north side of Lake Winna-Bango runs out, the nasty guests forbid Thidwick (by a "democratic" vote) to swim across to the south side. The dejected moose creeps out of the lake like a drowned rat as the guests reach across his antlers to shake hands, congratulating one another on their selfish triumph.

But unlike Horton, Thidwick is too self-sacrificing. Noble Horton protects deserving, vulnerable creatures (the unborn hatchling of a neglectful bird and a community of microscopic beings). In contrast, Thidwick's hospitality seems pointless: He nearly dies for a gang of ingrates. One practical six-year-old commented: "I'd just shake my antlers real hard and get rid of 'em!"

For adults who like dark humor, the final tableau is hilarious: All of the guests, including the bees and the spider, have little cartoon kicked-the-bucket x's for eyes, and their stuffed corpses are posed artfully on Thidwick's former antlers above the Harvard Club mantel. Young readers are liable to agree with Dr. Seuss that it serves the creeps right, but some parents won't want to endorse such vindictiveness.

From the Book:
Thidwick stopped walking.
What was all that talking?
These guests had caught Thidwick the Moose unawares.
" Hey! he called out. " What goes on there upstairs?"

"Just building a nest, sir," the Zinn-a-zu said,
And began yanking hairs out of poor Thidwick's head.
And he plucked out exactly two hundred and four!
"Don't worry," he laughed. "You can always grow more!"