''Honk, the Moose'' is a

children's book Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

Phil Stong Philip Duffield Stong (January 27, 1899 – April 26, 1957) was an American author, journalist and Hollywood scenarist. He is best known for the 1932 novel ''State Fair'', which was adapted as a film three times ( 1933, 1945 and 1962) and as a B ...

. It tells the story of a

moose The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult mal ...

who takes over a small town which causes an uproar when three young boys try to save the

and make it through the cold Minnesota winter. The book, illustrated by

Kurt Wiese Kurt Wiese (April 22, 1887 – May 27, 1974) was a German-born book illustrator, who wrote and illustrated 20 children's books and illustrated another 300 for other authors. Background Kurt Wiese was born on April 22, 1887, in Minden, Germ ...

, was first published in 1935, and was a

Newbery Honor Newbery is a surname. People *Chantelle Newbery (born 1977), Australian Olympic diver *David Newbery (born 1943), British economist *Eduardo Newbery (1878–1908), Argentine odontologist and aerostat pilot *Francis Newbery (disambiguation), seve ...

recipient in 1936. In 1970, it won the

Lewis Carroll Shelf Award The Lewis Carroll Shelf Award was an American literary award conferred on several books annually by the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Education annually from 1958 to 1979. Award-winning books were deemed to "belong on the same shelf" ...

, and was listed in Cattermole's ''100 Best Children's Books of the 20th Century''. Based on a true story from

Biwabik, Minnesota Biwabik () is a city in Saint Louis County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 961 at the 2020 census. State Highway 135 (MN 135) and Vermilion Trail (County 4) are two of the main routes in Biwabik. Its name is derived from the ...

, it effectively describes the lives of Finnish immigrants there.

References

1935 American novels American children's novels Fictional deer and moose Newbery Honor-winning works Novels set in Minnesota Children's novels about animals St. Louis County, Minnesota 1935 children's books Books illustrated by Kurt Wiese {{1930s-child-novel-stub