Moving House! Moose, Goose, and Mouse by Mordecai Gerstein

Even the rubber ducky in the bathtub is unhappy.

MOOSE SAID, "THIS HOUSE IS WET AND OLD."

GOOSE SAID, "IT'S FULL OF MOLD!"

"ACHOO!" SAID DUCK. "IT'S VERY COLD."

Clearly it is time to move to a better house. Moose wants one that's sunny, Goose votes for funny, and Mouse prefers one that comes with a bunny.

The three hop a train to search for a new house, taking a seat in the pink caboose. They all approve of the caboose. But the engineer takes the the mountain route, and the tracks carry the three up and up, and then up and down and up and up, until the caboose, uncoupled, comes loose. Yikes!

"HELP!" YELLED MOOSE.

"IT'S NO USE!" SAID GOOSE.

"THIS IS FUN," SAID MOUSE. "RIDING IN A LOOSE CABOOSE!"

The tracks take the loose caboose down, down, down, until the tracks end, inexplicably, into a palm tree which stops the upended caboose and the three at the edge of the sea. They survey their new neighborhood.

Hey! This isn't so bad. The seaside is sunny!" notes Moose. Goose finds an upside down caboose quite funny!

"IS THAT A BUNNY?" SAID MOUSE.

What more could they ask for, in Mordecai Gerstein's Moose, Goose, and Mouse (Holiday House, 2021), his latest and last book for children, with kid-pleasing digital paper collage with co-artist Jeff Mack in a goofy and good-natured look at an unplanned household move with a jolly surprise ending. A sweet and easy beginning reader in rhyme and a noodlehead tale of three zany housemates who find an new neighbor, this one is a Seussian candidate for a new classic. Says Kirkus Reviews, "Madcap humor at its finest."

Mordecai Gerstein received the Caldecott award as the author-illustrator of his stunning The Man Who Walked Between the Towers (see my review here).