''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. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...

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 in 1933, 1945, 1962 and 1976, and as a Broa ...

. It tells the story of a

moose The moose (: 'moose'; used in North America) or elk (: 'elk' or 'elks'; used in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is the world's tallest, largest and heaviest extant species of deer and the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is also the tal ...

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, Germa ...

, was first published in 1935, and was a

Newbery Honor The John Newbery Medal, frequently shortened to the Newbery, is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), to the author of "the most distinguished contr ...

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 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" as ''Al ...

, 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 t ...

, 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 Children's books about deer and moose Children's books set in Minnesota {{1930s-child-novel-stub