Hornswoggled!, a super silly book that runs with wacky words

There’s a box social at the ole Smith place. There’s a difference between using outdated slang and using a large vocabulary. When I teach I often use a larger vocabulary because students need to practice their inference skills, of course, if there are any blank stares or questions I’ll re-state what I just said, and then say it in a way that they’ll understand. Horsnwoggled! is an illustrated book that looks at uncommon slang, peppered with a propensity of alliterations, and is set against a forest of anthropomorphic animals trying to solve a farcical whodunit.

It’s possibly best thought of as a read-aloud book that’s as great as the person reading it. Are you a person who uses different voices when you read aloud and does so with lots of emotion or varying cadence? If that describes you, then you love reading to young students and Hornswoggled! is a book that you need to seek out and find an audience.

That’s not a pejorative, finding an audience for the book will be easy as those early through mid-elementary school students will love the animal drama that happens. A deer wakes up, looks in the mirror, sees that one of his antlers has been switched out for a tennis racquet, and exclaims “I’ve been hornswoggled!”. Just below the deer’s frustrated realization is a small armadillo who’s holding up a sign that defines ‘hornswoggle’.

The deer goes on through the forest as he talks with a catfish and bison who also had something special stolen. Now the three go see the mayor, a rooster who has also just had his speech stolen! The mayor’s yes-men go into overdrive freaking out, with each of them having a sign held up by our armadillo. Thankfully a detective, who is a skunk, shows up in the forest and tells the gaggle of animals that he’s solved the crime, but has he?

Hornswoggled! is a very fun book that runs with enthusiasm and glee. It’ll have children or classrooms requesting for the book to be read to them, and then will have a queue of kids thumbing through it to enjoy the illustrations. It’s also refreshingly fun. That’s a simple statement, but one that’s needed sometimes in literature. There is no agenda with the book other than to provide entertainment to everyone who reads it, which it accomplishes exceedingly well.  

Hornswoggled! Is by Josh Crute with illustrations by Jenn Harney and is available on Page Street Kids, an imprint of Page Street Publishing.

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