Book Review: Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose
What Parents Should Know
Parents need to know that 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. Some information about antlers.
Families can talk about hospitality, generosity,
self-sacrifice, and exploitation. What would you do if you felt
someone was taking advantage of your good nature? Are there
ways of standing up for yourself without being hurtful or
unkind to to others?
When a Bingle Bug asks to make his home on Thidwick's antlers, the good-natured moose agrees, but soon the bug invites other creatures to join him, and Thidwick regrets his generosity. The hapless host becomes weighted down with "guests," including a woodpecker who gouges huge holes in his antlers, a family of squirrels who move into the holes, a hive full of bees, and a fat bear as big as the moose himself.
When poor Thidwick starts to swim across the lake to forage for food, his selfish guests forbid him to go. Next, some hunters try to shoot the moose, hoping to mount his head on their club wall. Hampered by the heavy freeloaders, Thidwick is almost killed. But suddenly he remembers: Today is antler-shedding day! Light-headed and happy, Thidwick swims across the lake to join his friends. The guests end up stuffed and mounted over the hunters' mantelpiece.
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.
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.
Common Sense Media is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing information to help parents make media and entertainment choices for their families.
Join Us