A fun romp with a cow trying to get her friend moose back. Spelling is important in this rhyming book. Children will enjoy making new words as the cow begs, borrows and steals the letter she needs to complete the word MOOSE. I think this will be a great book for beginning readers. ( )

letters and words - fun! ( )

This adorable funny animal book is way to introduce children to the power of the alphabet. The way one letter can make a whole difference in word and meaning. I truly enjoyed this book and the laughter it brought me. ( )

Recommended by Pam W

A fun romp through spelling and grammar. As letters come loose from words, and are replaced by different letters, the things themselves change. (Moose becomes Moo, Goat becomes Oat and then Boat, Bear becomes Ear, etc.) Probably more fun for those who have a better grasp of spelling and language, but the 2.5yo enjoyed the silliness of it. ( )

When his S comes loose and his E breaks free, Moose disappears, much to the dismay of his best friend Cow. Determined to put her friend back together again, Cow goes on a quest to find some glue. Unfortunately, she'll need to find the four necessary letters in order to get that glue, a complicated process that involves borrowing and swapping letters, transforming the animals and things around her. The effort pays off in the end, however, as Moose is restored...

A debut picture-book from actor Peter Hermann, If the S in Moose Comes Loose features the artwork of illustrator Matthew Cordell, who won the Caldecott Medal earlier this year for his Wolf In the Snow. As could be expected, the visuals here are immensely entertaining, their humor well suited to the madcap nature of Cow's adventure. The story itself is quite creative, playing around with the idea of letters and words, and how the former are used to construct the latter. Sometimes I did feel that the text was a little bit wordy, and that Cow's swaps were a bit complicated for a book meant to be a poetic alphabet adventure for younger children. I also found myself expecting that the resolution of the story would reveal that Moose was undone by someone doing exactly what Cow did to restore him - i.e.: stealing letters - but that wasn't the case, alas. Despite these issues, overall I did enjoy this first venture from Mr. Hermann, and would recommend it to fans of books such as Z Is for Moose. ( )