A Brother from Another Mother? Dino Duckling by Alison Murphy

EVEN AS AN EGG, DINO DUCKLING WAS DIFFERENT.

Mama Duckling struggles to balance on top of her big, strange, blue egg, sitting tall among her relatively small duck eggs. Incubation is a challenge.

And when her eggs crack, the little ones are cute yellow bundles of fluff, but the big egg hatches out as one indisputably Ugly Duckling. But Mama Duck loves them all, and although it's a stretch, manages to take all her babies under her wings.

"BIG AND WIDE,
SLEEK AND SLIM,
WE'RE A FAMILY,
AND WE ALL FIT IN!"

Mama Duck gets busy teaching her hatchlings all the things they need to know as they grow--swimming, catching fish, how to share with each other, and how to navigate by the stars. The three little ducklings take to it like, well, ducks to water. Dino Duckling? Not so much.

It doesn't come easy to Dino Duckling. It's one thing to believe being different is a good thing, but the other creatures in the pond don't always see it that way. His swimming style is mostly thrash and splash, and the swans take umbrage in having their feathers ruffled and their elegant glide interrupted. In the lovely little pond, Dino Duckling is the equivalent of the metaphoric bull in the china shop.

SOMETIMES BEING DIFFERENT WAS DIFFICULT.

And as the summer goes by and the ducklings lose their yellow fuzz and grow sleek feathers, Dino Duckling stays the same--only BIGGER. MUCH BIGGER!

And when autumn arrives and it's time for the ducks to fly south for the winter, Dino Duckling just can't get this migration thing off the ground. He's left alone, weeping in the willows by the river.

"DIFFERENCE DOES MATTER," HE THOUGHT SADLY.

But Mother Duck doesn't despair. Where there's a will, there's a way, and she comes up with a just ducky solution to send them all south in style, in Alison Murphy's Dino Duckling (Little, Brown and Company, 2018). Dealing with all kinds of differences in the family and in the wider world is an important matter, even for pre- and primary schoolers, and Murphy's sweet and funny story spells out her premise with bouncy rhymes and with visual humor in her gentle illustrations of a family determined to break the mold to make sure they leave no sibling behind. Says Kirkus Reviews, "Reassurance for the Dino Duckling in every family!"

And if you need a pair to share, try Kallie George's Duck, Duck, Dinosaur and sequels. (See reviews here.)