REVIEWS Continuing efforts to find a two-legged audience for the woodland tales of Maynard Moose, veteran yarnspinner Claflin follows up The Uglified Ducky (2008) with another “distremely” hilarious mashup. Related in moose dialect, the tale has young Punzel cutting off her “goldie” locks after they become “all full of sticks and twigs and little nastified wudgies of glop” and then tangle hopelessly in the bushes during her flight from a witchy hair stylist. With help from “eight or nine seven dwarfs” with names like Clumsy, Hyper, Grizelda and Ambidexterous, she escapes for a while but eventually falls victim to the witch’s poisoned watermelon. Her glass coffin becomes a tourist-magnet centerpiece for a dwarf-run amusement park until the clumsy Handsome Prince comes riding along on a snow-white moose to fall onto the coffin and wake her. Using dark backdrops that brighten the colors of the blocky figures in the foreground, Stimson places the escapade in a traditional medieval setting. He endows the fugitive damsel with oversized spectacles and slips in droll details like Japanese tourists visiting a “Punzeldog” stand at the roadside attraction. In the end, Punzel falls for the moose, the Prince marries the witch and all “lived happily for never afterwords.” Moral? “[T]here ain’t no moral,” the antlered narrator concludes. Plenty of belly laughs, though. Packaged with a recorded version delivered in a Bullwinkle-ish lisp. (glossary) (Fractured fairy tale. 8-11)

Sometimes a children's picture book comes along that is destined to greatness, a children's book that will redefine children's books for the next generation, a book that every child should own - required reading in every college class on writing for children. This is not that book. This is the sort book you really want to have on hand for those children who have heard all the stories. You know that type. They sit in their smug little beds demanding that you share with them a new story every night. While a professional storyteller may consider such a dare a challenge; I can see how it might be intimidating for the average parent to come up with new fractured fairytales night after night. "Rapunzel and the Seven Dwarfs" by Willy Claflin is your answer to the child who has heard all the stories. The illustrations by James Stimson are amazing, swift and modern. This children's picture book lands directly in the land of fractured fairytales. A land populated by many ugly and beautiful relatives of stories we know and love. This is a fractured fairytale as only Moose can tell it. (The Moose gets the girl - just so you know.) There is a language guide to Moose for those of you who may not have the in built imaginary guidance system to handle the Moose Native phrases. This book is required reading for any fans of Maynard the Moose. If you are not a fan of Maynard you will become one - because Maynard's voice is available on a CD just under the book jacket on the inside cover. Here is a quick review of the review. If you're a fan of Maynard - buy this book. If you're a fan of fractured fairytales - buy this book. If you have a child that has heard every story under the sun and loves to look at the pictures as you read them the stories - buy this book. This book is the American Storytelling revivals answer to Disney. I don't really write reviews. If you want your material to be reviewed on this blog the best way to do that is ask somebody else to write you a review and then forward me a copy and I will publish it. Don't get any ideas as I do not write reviews. I only wrote this one because Maynard the Moose is a fan of the show and I liked the book.

Come take a playful moose-filled romp through "Rapunzel and the Seven Dwarfs: A Maynard Moose Tale." Get this book for your collection. With a verbal-wrangling style that only Maynard Moose (and his human storytelling alter ego of Willy Claflin) could create, you and your kids could dive into a fractured-fairytale universe from which you may never escape as you will be overloaded with fits of laughter. The names of the dwarfs are enough to make this book worth every moment you spend with it. You and your kids will find plenty of surprises and unexpected turns when you turn page by page. The illustrations are fun and capture the scenes just as if you are looking into the mind of the moose. The book comes with an audio CD. The story as told by moose is really something you must hear at least once so that you will truly appreciate the phrase turns and language mashing that Maynard provides. We get many books for review at Storyteller.net. Unlike other books, anything by Maynard and Willy gets spirited off by my kids as soon as they see it- and the youngest is in junior-high. This is an all-ages book that even you as a parent will be saying, "Let’s read that one again."

In this fractured version of two classic tales, reset in the Northern Piney Woods of Maine, Punzel, “with long, long goldie hair,” is locked in a tower by a witch to keep her hair from dragging on the dirty ground and getting muck in it. A well-meaning but very heavy Prince tries to rescue her; instead he vaults her into a duck pond where she meets “eight or nine seven dwarfs.” The rest of the book is a mash-up of “Rapunzel,” “Snow White,” and “Sleeping Beauty” with the dwarves creating a “Sleeping Punzel Museum.” But in the end, she gets her prince...sort of. The story is told in “old Moose Speech” with words such as “filthified” and “glop” scattered throughout the book. A helpful glossary of “moose words” is included at the beginning. The fractured English may not be helpful for children learning to read, but it will be entertaining in its pure silliness. A CD of Claflin’s humorous narration keeps the story lively. Stimson’s digital artwork is funny and has little details that children can pore over.

It’s a fairy tale mosh pit of fun and you’re invited. The only question about this newest book from Maynard Moose is who will laugh the loudest…you or the children you share it with. From Punzel to the many dwarfs and a “chubbified” Prince riding a noble white moose..the fun never ends. With tons of fairy tale twists along with hilarious illustrations and plot happenings..it’s the perfect picture book for older children to enjoy. While the age designation for this book is 4-8, I would have to say as a children’s librarian you would need to be about 6 to get the humor completely but the book could be enjoyed by children and adults of all ages probably topping out around 12 for the independent reader. This is a really great pick for your older picture book reader….they haven’t heard this story but can identify the many they have within and the humor will keep them from thinking it’s for “babies” simply because it is in picture book form. If you enjoyed The Uglified Ducky, you will love Rapunzel and the Seven Dwarfs. An added bonus is the included audio CD which blends perfectly with the book.



"Rapunzel and the Seven Dwarfs: A Maynard Moose Tale" (book and CD) is a Maynard Moose tale as told to Willy Claflin, a part of a vast collection of Mother Moose Tales. To assist the reader, a Glossary and Hoofnotes introduces "Rapunzel and the Seven Dwarfs," with suitable explanations and parental warnings. "Rapunzel and the Seven Dwarfs" is written as told by storyteller Maynard Moose, on a full moon night, to all the listening woodland creatures, in the great Northern Piney Woods. The story narrative is embellished with hoofnotes when special moose language and vocabulary is used. A hilarious version of the familiar fairy tale emerges, complete with eccentric, vivid, wild illustrations. In an unprecedented plot twist, the seven dwarfs, of whom there are 8 or 9, come along to witness Punzel in the duck pond where she has been pulled by the prince, who is a bit chubbified, at 512 pounds. The dwarfs try to help Punzel escape the witch safely, so they shave off her long goldie hair. Nevertheless a strangely disguised witch manages to find Punzel alone with a barrow full of poisoned watermelons, which Punzel samples and promptly falls into sleep. The dwarfs decide to exhibit Punzel in a glass box and charge all the forest animals 25 cents a peek. Finally the handsome prince comes riding along on a snow white moose, who trips over the glass case and smashes it to smithereens! Punzel wakes up, coughs out the piece of watermelon, kisses the noble, handsome, kindly moose and goes off with him to live happily ever afterwards. The handsome prince marries the witch in the tall tower and the dwarfs go back to digging gold in the mountain. And the moral of the story is... there ain't no moral to some stories at all! Children will love this hilarious compilation of fairy tales retold by a moose, with hoofprints, and the CD will help befuddled adults with their moose-pronunciation.



This book was funny. My six year old daughter loved it and I think it will likely be a hit with my 10 year old son as well. It's a fractured fairy tale complete with a bald Rapunzel, 9 dwarfs and a 512 lb. prince. It's pointless, told with poorly written grammar & made up words and has no moral to the story. It's just humourous, silly story. If I had to actually read this book I wouldn't have loved it nearly as much as I did. Thankfully it comes with a Audio CD where the author reads it to us in his moose voice making it a very entertaining read. 4 Stars - Great Book



Not just a fairy-tale mashup, but also a story-within-a-story. We begin in the Northern Piney Woods, and are told that every full moon, all of the animals come out to hear the 'old Mother Moose Tales,' as related by Maynard Moose. James Stimson depicts the scene with much lushness, the flames of the small campfire glowing against Maynard's antlers, the full moon shining down from above, I could have spent the whole story out in these environs. Yet soon enough, we venture into the world of the tale. "Her hair was so long that it drag out from behind of her along the ground. It get dragged through mud puddles, and kids run over it on their bicycles, and it becomes distremely filthified - all full of sticks and twigs and little nastified wudgies of glop." The whole story is told in this strange vernacular, what we are told it was translated from the original Moose. Certain words are listed in the glossary, should the context prove unclear. Filthified means, "repulsively and disgustingly unclean." Glop is, "mysterious, disgusting, foul-smelling sticky stuff." In this story, she is locked away in a tower by a wicked witch, and when the handsome prince attempts to mount Punzel's golden hair - being a bit chubbified - he instead yanks her from the tower and sends her flying into the forest, where she meets the eight or nine seven drawfs: Clumsy, Snoozy, Cheerful, Fearful, Hyper, Hungry, Grizelda, Ambidextrous and sometimes Bewildered. Once in the care of the eight or nine Dwarfs, her head is shaved clean as a bowling ball in order than she may best untangle herself form the clutches of the wooded branglebush, which also doubles as a keen way to disguise her identity (in my opinion), but more plot-pertinent, allows for some cranial nueromancy on the part of the dwarfs, who crowd around the shorn noggin and inquire, "Mirror, mirror on Punzel’s head Is the witch alive or dead?" From here, the story fairly gives way to Snow White, albeit with Rhinocerous costumes and poisoned watermelons and the creation of the Sleeping Punzel Museum and amusement park to house her camotose self. Only 75 cents to see her! And is it the handsome yet chubbified prince who will thus awaken her with a single kiss and prance on off into the sunset? Is it?! Nope. It is a moose, of course. "And the moral of that story is, if you have long, long goldie hairs that drag out from behind of you along the ground, then you should always... um… The moral of the story is… there ain’t no moral to some stories at all!" Thus sayeth Maynard.

A Maynard Moose tale, so you know it’s going to be interesting! Maynard faithfully relates the (sort of) familiar tale of Punzel and how she came to be in the company of seven (or eight or nine) dwarfs while trying to escape from the nasty witch. Replete with moosey vocabulary, this fractured fairy tale will leave the reader scratching his head and doubling over with laughter. So I’ve never read a Maynard Moose tale before. Now I want them all. For kids who loved Disney’s Tangled (I’m included), this silly version of Rapunzel is bound to be a hit. Also adults who like lists in a John Cleese/Monty Python/cheese shop sketch kind of way will enjoy this book. The names of the dwarfies are Clumsy, Snoozy, Cheerful, Fearful, Hyper, Hungry, Grizelda, Ambidextrous, and sometimes Bewildered. *heart* Stimson’s illustrations are perfect. The details are dead on.