REVIEW: Finley, a Moose on the Caboose
Details
Author: Candace Spizzirri
Illustrator: Burgen Thorne/Chantelle Thorne
Publisher: Gnome Road Publishing
Expected Date of Publication: April 2023
Review
In Finley: A Moose on the Caboose, a moose called Finley dreams of riding the rails to distant destinations. After his first attempt to ride unnoticed on the caboose fails, persistent Finley comes back again and again with silly and sometimes stylish disguises. But strict Conductor Jones proclaims, “Rules are rules,” and boots him from the train. Ultimately, Finley will have the opportunity to prove his worth to the Conductor and the rest of the passengers.
Overall, readers will enjoy this sweet and silly story. Finley is larger than life, both figuratively and literally. Implausibility is built into many illustrations as you see Finley with his massive antlers apparently don costumes much too small. Even the train itself doesn’t seem large enough to contain him. Overall, the illustrations are fun and colourful, and leave plenty for the reader to take in.
There’s some annoyances in the text. The plethora of onomatopoeia and alliteration is at times a bit much. More critically, the people Finley is so friendly to are questionable in their own friendliness. SPOILER: Late into the story, even as passengers are flung from their seats in a near miss, they’re still worried about getting to their destinations on time rather than their own safety and the safety of those around them. This leaves a critical reader to wonder if these people even deserve the help of Finley the friendly moose to stay on schedule.
In the end, it doesn’t feel like Finley was really the driving force of the story, or that his final attempt to board would have resulted in a better outcome if not for complete happenstance.
Most of the characters in this story present white, cis, straight, and able-bodied, though some diversity in skin tone is present.
A good addition to shelves, particularly for those in northern climates looking for more humourous and regionally relevant books.
Reviewed digitally via NetGalley.
