And A Ducky New Year! A Very Quacky Christmas by Francis Watts

SAMANTHA DUCK WAS GETTING READY FOR CHRISTMAS. "WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS," SHE SANG, AS SHE WRAPPED TINSEL AROUND THE REEDS.

Her very sensible friend Sebastian the turtle was bemused.

"CHRISTMAS IS NOT FOR ANIMALS," HE OBSERVED.

But Samantha is not deterred by his nay-saying. Soon there are ornamnents hanging on most of the trees. She hangs her Christmas stocking. She informs Sebastian that she is going to give presents to animals all over the world! Sebastian repeats his injunction that animals don't do Christmas.

"CHRISTMAS IS ABOUT GIVING AND SHARING, ISN'T IT?

AND ANIMALS LIKE TO GIVE AND SHARE, DON'T THEY?" ASKED SAMANTHA.

Sebastian reluctantly agrees. Well, then, that's settled. Samantha suggests that Sebastian has to help her make and deliver all those gifts.

It's a case of Sense and Sensibility. Sebastian has huge doubts, but Samantha feels that giving gifts around the world is the thing to do and do-able, besides. And when the animals of the farm hear Samantha's idea, they pitch right in. The sheep give wool and Samanatha (and Sebastian) knit socks and scarves. The chickens lay lots of eggs and Samantha makes Christmas goodies. The cows donate daisies from their pasture and Samantha and Sebastian make dozens and dozens of daisy chains. Donkey offers his cart to deliver the gifts and all pitch in to load the gifts into his wagon. But Sebastian points out an apparent delivery problem.

"WE'LL MAKE A BIG RUN, SAMANTHA SUGGESTED, "AND I'LL FLAP MY WINGS AND WE'LL FLY."

"ABSURD!" SAID SEBASTIAN. "IT'LL NEVER WORK!"

Samantha flaps furiously, but the lift-off fails twice. Perhaps Sebastian was right from the beginning, she thinks sadly.

"NO, YOU WERE RIGHT!" SAID SEBASTIAN. "CHRISTMAS IS FOR ANIMALS. LET'S GIVE IT ONE MORE TRY."

And before the evening star has risen to its meridian, the cart rises in the sky and the two stand-in Santas are on the way to bring Christmas to animals all over the world....

And it's a quacky New Year" all around as well, in Frances Watts' plucky, ducky story, A Very Quacky Christmas (Doubleday Books). Author Watts is assisted by the award-winning Aussie illustrator Ann James' fine line drawings that puts the emphasis on the two benefactors' good intentions. Says School Library Journal, "Giving and sharing never had a better advertisement than this sweet farm story."

Share this one with Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin's wacky, quacky Christmas farm yarn with another jolly substitute Santa Duck, Click, Clack, Ho! Ho! Ho! (A Click Clack Book). (See my review here.)

How Many Hatchlings? Ducks On The Road by Anita Lobel

It's a sparkling, sunny, spring morning. The trees are leafy and the flowers are blooming, and Mama and Papa Duck are proudly parading their new ducklings down the road to the pond. Then little ones trail their parents in a proper straight line...

... UNTIL, THE TENTH DUCKLING IN LINE TURNED BACK TO QUACK,

"HELLO, FROG!"

Unaware that one duckling has quit the queue, Mama and Papa march on, with nine ducklings in tow behind them.

And one by one, the rest of the ducklings also stop along the way to greet the animals they meet: first Frog, each duckling in turn stops to salute a newly-met neighbor--Mouse, Squirrel, Rabbit, Cat, Dog, Pig, Sheep, and Owl, and one surprise.

The tenth duckling turns around to greet--another duckling.

"HELLO, DUCK!" THEY SAID TO EACH OTHER.

And when Mama and Papa reach the pond and look back to introduce their TEN little ducks to their destination, they discover something surprising:

"OH, NO! OUR LITTLE DUCKS ARE GONE!"

"NO. HERE WE ARE!" QUACKED ELEVEN LITTLE DUCKS.

The suprised parents find more than they expect--nine new animals, furry, feathered, and amphibian, and especially one more duckling than they had counted on!

"ELEVEN DUCKS?" QUACKED PAPA.

"EVEN BETTER!" QUACKED MAMA.

And there's always room for one more duckling to splash into the pond, in the celebrated author-illustrator Anita Lobel's latest, Ducks on the Road: A Counting Adventure (Simon & Schuster, 2021). A Caldecott Medalist herself, Anita Lobel, part of a notable author-illustrator pair with her husband Arnold Lobel, creator of the famous Frog and Toad are Friends series and other notable picture books, has come up with a counting book filled with cute and curious ducklings and a surprise ending. Count on Anita Lobel for a picture book just right for the spring season, illustrated in her delightful artistic style that gives youngsters a chance to count ducklings and other familiar animals along the way. Anita Lobel's Caldecott Award went to her for her classic On Market Street and her charming story of how woolly sheep provide warm winter wear, A New Coat for Anna.

A Terrible Time on the Nile Express: The Express Train to Trouble (A Miss Mallard Mystery) by Robert Quackenbush

At breakfast on the luxurious Nile Express, chaos broke out in the dining car.

The world-famous ducktective, Miss Mallard, could not believe her eyes.

Vinegar in Sir Reginald Baldpate's tea caused him to choke. A trick dribble glass spoiled Lady Teal's diamond-adorned frock, and a slap on the back sent Professor Bafflehead's spectacles flying, as the perennial prankster George Ruddy Duck made his way down the dining car aisle.

Not one to miss an opportunity, Miss Mallard quickly offered Sir Reginald a glass of water and took a seat at the table opposite him.

"I've been so anxious to talk to you. I saw you come aboard with your recent discovery, the Tut-n-Quacken mummy case.

All that gold!"

But not even the noted interrogator Miss Mallard could get any details out of Sir Reginald. His answer to all her questions was "Quite!" Then Miss Mallard asked him about the newspaper story that he had been injured in East Africa.

"What happened?" she asked.

Sir Reginald said, "Tigers chased me," and abruptly got up, leaving his cane behind.

Hmmm. Tigers? And when the annoying prankster George Ruddy Duck was discovered missing the next morning, Miss Mallard was called on to save the reputation of the posh Nile Express and find the missing, if not missed, prankster. Is George Ruddy Duck a dead duck? Has someone purloined the Tut-n-Quacken mummy case?

All the clues are there for the illustrious spinster sleuth, Miss Mallard and young detective readers to solve the case, in Robert Quackenbush's Express Train to Trouble: A Miss Mallard Mystery (QUIX) (Aladdin Books), in this clever take-off on Agatha Christie's classic Miss Marple mysteries, right down to the magnifying glass, flashlight, the versatile knitting needles, and, of course, chocolates, in her ever-present reticule in this beginning chapter book for primary readers who love sleuthing stories.

Miss Mallard seems to be perpetually pursued by problems on various conveyances for the enjoyment of young mystery fans in Quackenbush's other Miss Mallard mysteries, such as Cable Car to Catastrophe: A Miss Mallard Mystery (QUIX), Taxi to Intrigue: A Miss Mallard Mystery (QUIX) and Gondola to Danger: A Miss Mallard Mystery (QUIX), to name a few.

And for young fans of hard-boiled gumshoes, Robert Quackenbush is also the noted author of the Detective Mole series, a great launching pad to the middle reader's favorite, Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective.

Put Your Foot Down! Ollie The Stomper by Oliver Dunrea

Ollie is a little brown gosling.

Gertie and Gossie are little yellow goslings.

GOSSIE WEARS BRIGHT RED BOOTS.

GERTIE WEARS BRIGHT BLUE BOOTS.

In their big boots, Gossie and Gertie are impressive, clomping through the straw, romping among the raindrops, and stomping in the rain puddles.

Ollie has no boots for clomping or romping or stomping.

Gertie and Gossie show off their boots shamelessly. They stomp-splash in the rain puddles and hide out among the pumpkins, poking their brightly booted feet out just to tease their bootless little buddy.

Jumping up on an overturned basket, Ollie makes an announcement.

"I WANT BOOTS!" OLLIE SHOUTS.

His announcement gets Gertie's and Gossie's attention, for sure!

There's only one way to be fair. Gertie gives Ollie a boot and Gossie gives Ollie a boot. Now Ollie has a red boot and a blue boot on his each of his two feet. Happy, he hops to the barn and then stomps to the piggery, where he stops and gives his new footwear a long, hard look.

Ollie makes a proclamation.

"BOOTS ARE TOO HOT!"

There's one sure cure for hot geese feet. It's time for a swim in the pond, au naturel, for the three little goslings, in Oliver Dunrea's Ollie the Stomper (Gossie & Friends) (Houghton Mifflin Books), one of the author's many adorable gosling barnyard stories which offers a happy solution to toddler jealousies. For newbies to the barnyard bunch, share this one with Dunrea's earlier Ollie (Gossie & Friends) and Gossie and Gertie (Gossie and Friends).. For more of Dunrea's endearing books of the poultry pairs, see reviews here.

Shakeup? Shakedown? Abner and Ian Get Right-Side Up by Dave Eggers

The curtain has gone up...

and so have the actors, apparently. Abner and Ian are sideways, perpendicular to the earth, itself a vague silhouette on the backdrop.

"Uh-oh."

"What?"

"Can't you see? We're sideways!"

Yes, Dear Reader, it's happened again. You have opened a meta-book, one of those interactive volumes where the characters expect you to do all of the work.

"We can ask that kid," suggests Abner.

"Hey, Kid! Do us a favor. Shake the book, then turn the page!"

Well, they're not stuck on the side of the page anymore. Now they are suspended from the top.

Ian is dubious about the efficacy of under-aged plot movers, but he's getting too woozy to argue.

Luckily, Abner is an experienced reader. He's cites that story where the author tells you to shake the book, and when you do everything is fixed. Ian says he's familiar with the genre, and after some banter, the two manage to cooperate on the cue.

NOW!

Nope! The Kid cooperates, but each shake seems to make things worse. Abner and Ian find themselves joined at the hip in the book's center seam. How do they get out of the gutter? More shakes find them disambiguated and discombobulated. It's time to try something different.

"Kid? Can you turn out the light and count to ten? We'll meet you on page 76."

And finally, Abner and Ian, feet planted on terra firma, should be ready to start the story, in Dave Eggers' latest theater of the absurd picture book, Abner and Ian Get Right-Side Up (Little, Brown and Company, 2019). But will they? Now Abner and Ian need a nap! All they need is for someone to close the book and make it be nice and dark in there. The End.

In this latest, a sort of spoof of Herve' Tullet's graphic metabooks such as Press Here Game and Mix It Up (Interactive Books for Toddlers, Learning Colors for Toddlers, Preschool and Kindergarten Reading Books) and Bill Cotter's Don't Push the Button! and sequels, artist Laura Park lets the illustrations tell the meta-story with some charm and wry humor. This one is a fun read-aloud for grown-ups (who will appreciate some sophisticated asides planted for them by the author) and especially for youngsters who cut their literary teeth on Mo Willems' Elephant and Piggy early reader series. Says Booklist, "A mind changer for anyone who every thought reading was a sedate occupation!"

Just Call Me Dumb Cluck! Duck Is Stuck by Zoubida Mounssin

Duck's wings are tired. It's been a long flight.

He lands on the icy lake for a bit of respite. In no time he falls asleep, deeply asleep. And when he wakes up...

DUCK IS STUCK.

He flops his feet. He flaps his wings. No go! Duck is stuck in the frozen pond.

Uh-Oh! It wouldn't be so bad to get stuck in the muck. Ducks love swamps and swamps are mucky places. It's not so unusual to be stuck in a truck. Trucks break down a lot. But... a duck stuck in the ice?

Snowflake the rabbit comes along and is curious.

"HOW IN THE WORLD DID YOU GET INTO THAT SITUATION?"

This is embarrassing. Seriously.

Duck has to explain the obvious and ask a bunny for help. Snowflake obliges, with vigorous thumping from her fairly impressive back feet. No cracks.

Blackbird lands on the ice with the same question. He pecks at the ice. Not a dent!

Next the now familiar question comes from the Moses the Moose. Moses has four big hooves, but he's afraid he'll crack the ice and then they'll all fall in the drink! Who can help?

Just then a little fish named Rachel observes the problem from the underside of the ice where Duck's feet are quietly turning blue. And she knows what to do! Quickly she swims to the lodge of the best animal plumber in the pond--Bert the beaver!

And Bert the Beaver's got just the tool for the job. He applies his big wide tail to the problem.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

CRACK!

And Duck finally catches a break, in Zoubida Mounssin's Duck Is Stuck (Clavis, 2018). Mounssin's critter characters deliver their repetitious lines in perfect deadpan style, while illustrator Pascale Moutte-Baur provides the humor on her pages divided by the ice, with the mortified Duck shown above and below. Her clever illustrations have the look of paper collage and utilize both split page and varying perspectives to heighten the theme of crowd-sourcing cooperation! Three cheers for teamwork!

Quacking Up with Feathered Friends! Duckling And Friends by Ellie Boultwood, et al

HELLO, DUCKLINGS!

What's cuter than a baby duck waddling along after its mother?

While a spring trip to the farm to meet the baby animals is great, it's now autumn, and those fluffy little yellow ducklings are pretty much looking like grown-up hens and drakes, busy ducking under the waters of the pond for some dinner.

But wait! Priddy Baby Touch and Feel books are the next best thing! Those fluffy feathers and paddling feet can be touched and felt by little fingers, and in Ellie Boultwood's charming rhyming text, toddlers can see, feel, and imagine what baby ducklings, lambs, foals, and calves coats are like. There's also a page for little ones to try out a BAA! or a MOO! or two!

There is even a chance for the virtual experience of touching a goat and his smooth furry coat, in Duckling and Friends Touch and Feel (Baby Touch and Feel) (St. Martin's Press/Priddy Books, 2017). Other sturdy board Touch and Feel Books with a down-on-the-farm theme are Bright Baby Touch And Feel Baby Animals (Bright Baby Touch and Feel), and Quack! Quack!: These Baby Animals Can't Want to Meet You (Baby Touch and Feel).

Good Grief! My Kite Is Stuck and Other Stories (A Duck, Duck, Porcupine Story) by Salina Yoon

"Oh, No! My kite is stuck in the tree!" Duck laments.

Duck can't fly that high. Now Baby Duck will not get to see the kite rise high in the sky.

Porcupine steps in to help.

"Don't worry, Baby Duck. I'll knock it down with my ball," said Porcupine.

"OOPS!"

Now Porcupine's ball is stuck in the tree.

As Baby Duck looks on, perplexed, Duck throws Baby Duck's hula hoop up into the tree to knock down the ball. Now the kite, the ball, and the hula hoop are stuck in the tree.

Duck is exasperated. With a mighty heave she throws Porcupine into the tree! Now Porcupine, Baby Duck's hula hoop, his ball, and Duck's kite are stuck in the tree.

Baby Duck looks out at the reader as if to say, "Can you believe this?" She walks off, page right, and with a page turn, returns with a long ladder.

"Just what we needed!" says Big Duck.

She climbs the long ladder up into the tree and sits down happily in the tree with Porcupine.

"We can finally play with our toys!"

Baby Duck gives the reader THE LOOK.

The venerable noodle tale is alive and well, in Salina Yoon's My Kite is Stuck! and Other Stories (A Duck, Duck, Porcupine Book) (Bloomsbury Press, 2017). Baby Duck's deadpan face says it all, as Duck and Porcupine play their doofus roles drolly in this book in Yoon's delightful beginning reader series. Yoon's storytelling is simple, but her character development is complex and her simple blackline and flat color illustrations capture the funny misadventures of the well-intentioned Duck and Porcupine with the same ironic humor that Mo Willems brought to his Elephant and Piggie series. A first purchase for emergent readers.

April Showers! Duck, Duck, Porcupine! by Salina Yoon

"THIS IS A PERFECT DAY FOR A PICNIC, PORCUPINE!" SAYS BIG DUCK.

With the sun high in a big blue sky, Big Duck takes charge. The picnic basket is prepared and the blanket for the picnickers to sit on is fetched. Big Duck declares that they are all set. But Little Duck is watching a cloud floating in front of the sun. With a metabook look out at the readers, he lets them know that he's aware of something Big Duck doesn't yet know.

PLOP It's beginning to rain!

Porcupine proclaims the picnic permanently spoiled! But Little Duck sees certain possibilities in showers. He walks right into a puddle with a slish-slosh and a splish-splash! Big Duck tries out the puddle with one toe and pronounces it has potential! All three take the plunge into the puddle's middle.

"THIS IS FUN!"

The cloud moves on, and so do the three friends, ready for their picnic spread. But Big Duck remembers there's something she forgot--if only she could remember what it is! Little Duck gives her a hint.

Quack, Quack-Quack-Quack QUACK QUACK!

Could it be the birthday CAKE that Big Duck has forgotten? Why, yes, yes, it could! And Porcupine has his party after all.

Encouraged by the picnic, Big Duck moves on to planning a camping trip for the three of them. She starts her list of supplies. When she gets to #98, a shovel "in case of a flash flood,", Porcupine begins to want to pull out of the expedition. Duck will have to hire a truck for all this stuff! But when the list gets up to #100, marshmallows, Little Duck decides to stick around for the S'MORES!

And more than s'mores are in store, in Salina Yoon's easy-reading Duck, Duck, Porcupine! (A Duck, Duck, Porcupine Book) Author Yoon offers simple text and and a certain sweet silliness to her stories of the three amigos, all different but all friends who share their fun with each other.

Yoon's award-winning artwork is familiar, with much in common with her hit Penguin books, Penguin and Pinecone and Penguin on Vacation, as well as her popular lift-the-flap Do Cows Meow? (A Lift-the-Flap Book). While it's true that, as the Bulletin for the Center for Children's Books says, "Yoon’s crisp, clean art has a coloring-book-like simplicity that will appeal to youngsters. . . , the interpersonal relationships between the characters are more subtle, inferred rather than stated outright. The two ducks are no cookie-cutter characters: Big Duck is a matter-of-fact, task-oriented big-sister type, while Little Duck has a visually wry take on her doings that add sensibility and humor to the mix, and Porcupine also functions as the amiable foil for this duckie duo. Good for read alouds for the youngest book lover, and easy for the emergent reader to tackle alone, this one is a great addition to the early grades bookshelf.

Other books in this series are That's My Book! And Other Stories (A Duck, Duck, Porcupine Book) and My Kite is Stuck! and Other Stories (A Duck, Duck, Porcupine Book).

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.)

Duck--And Cover! Duck, Duck, Dinosaur: Snowy Surprise by Kellie George

It's winter!

Today the surprise is...    SNOW!

For Feather (a duck) and Flap (also a duck) and their brother--by another-mother--Spike (NOT a duck; more like a dinosaur actually), the first day of winter has brought them something they've never seen before.

It's white and it's slippery, and of course Spike LOVES it! (Spike loves everything.) It's cold and it's wet, and of course Feather and Flap hate it. Their little webbed feet are in danger of turning blue.

But Brother Spike is gonzo about snow!

Nothing will do but for Spike to urge his little feathered semi-siblings to join him in a frenzy of winter sports. Feather and Flap loyally shiver through rounds of snowball fights, shake through belly-flop sledding, and get goosebumps from ice skating on the frozen pond. If the ducklings had teeth, they would be chattering all through Spike's snowman-building challenge, too. Brrrrrrrr!

Feather and Flap are about to mount a hypothermia mutiny when they spot MAMA, bearing hot cocoa and what looks like a mountain of poofy, downy duck jackets, knitted caps with ear flaps, and woolly-lined snow boots made for chilly webbed feet. Suddenly the ducklings are all go-go for snow!

What a surprise!

Mama knows best when it comes to winter wear, in Kellie George's latest book in her quacky-quirky sort-of-sibling tales in her emergent reader series, Duck, Duck, Dinosaur: Snowy Surprise (My First I Can Read) (Harper, 2017).  In this new book about those off-beat brothers, a sudden snowfall shows the Mama knows best when it comes to bundling up for frosty play. Author George's breezy narrative is easy for new readers to sound out, and artist Oriol Vidal offers her quacky-wacky off-beat illustrations of these unlikely siblings as visual cues to the text. Share this new one with Kellie George's and Orio Vidal's first story of the unlikely family of ducklings and dinosaur, Duck, Duck, Dinosaur. (See review here.)

School Library Journal gives this new one a two wingtips up: "Lots of word repetition combined with a simple but enjoyable plot make this an essential purchase for most beginning-to-read collections."

Boo Time! Honk! Quack! BOO! (Duck and Goose) by Tad Hills

"So, Goose, what are you going to be tomorrow?" asked Duck.

"Tomorrow? Well, I think I will be myself, Duck. It's important to always be yourself."

"Tomorrow is Halloween! It's a day to not be yourself," Duck explained to Goose.

Little gray goose Thistle joins the conversation and announces that her costume is a secret, leaving Duck and Goose with a cryptic warning.

"Beware of the Swamp Monster!"

Duck is unfazed by Thistle's bravado, but Goose announces that he's no fan of swamp monsters. He decides that dressing as Super Goose might keep the shivers at bay.

The next evening he gets suited up in super-hero style and is met by a ghost who claims to be Duck.

"I'm not really a ghost! Look at my feet!"

Goose relaxes a little, and the two friends head off for some trick-or-treating, Goose still looking around apprehensively for a Swamp Monster. He spots a bee and a butterfly, a princess and a daisy, all clearly friends in costumes, but no sign of Thistle in her secret disguise. But then.... some scary footsteps are heard, coming closer, and closer, and....

Duck and Goose turned and saw the slimiest and most hideous Swamp Monster ever.

Goose groaned. "We're goners!"

Duck and Goose are scared, but sharp-eyed young readers will not be if they have spied Thistle in the background gathering moss from the pond for her secret Halloween disguise, in Tad Hill's Duck and Goose, Honk! Quack! Boo! (Schwartz and Wade, 2017).

Luckily, Goose rallies, remembering that he is after all a brave superhero, and Thistle gets a surprise comeuppance scare of her own, in author-illustrator Hills' newest story of his beloved web-footed characters' Halloween adventure. Hills offers youngsters some vicarious experience with the minor fears of Halloween, along with enough scares and treats to go around for all. Hills' adorable aquatic characters play out their little holiday excursion in both full-bleed and spot-art style on alternating pages, giving the youngest trick-or-treaters just the right preview taste of the spooky fun and sweet rewards of Halloween. Says Kirkus Reviews, "Goose and Duck are wonderfully childlike in their innocence and naiveté. Gentle Halloween fun from two beloved friends."

I Yam Who I Yam! Quackers by Liz Wong

QUACKERS IS A DUCK.

HE KNOWS HE'S A DUCK BECAUSE HE LIVES AT THE DUCK POND WITH ALL THE OTHER DUCKS.

He can sit on a lilypad. but the daily duck hors d'oeuvres--snails, slugs, weed seeds and worms--aren't exactly appetizing, and that duckweed doesn't go down so easy either. His quack (ME-OW!) is, how shall we say, communicatively distinctive.

SOMETIMES HE FEELS THAT HE DOESN'T QUITE FIT IN.

All the ducks are quite supportive, but Quackers sometimes feels the need to roam beyond the confines of the duck pond. And then he encounters something novel.

ONE DAY QUACKERS MET A STRANGE DUCK.

"ME-OW?

ME-OW!"

"YOU UNDERSTAND ME?"

The little gray cat points out that yes, he can, because he, too, is a cat. In fact, he's amazed when Quackers admits he's never met a duck who could understand his language.

"WAIT! YOU THINK YOU'RE A DUCK?"

MOWR! Quacker's worlds are colliding! He's not a duck? He's actually a... cat?

His new friend Mittens introduces him to the other cats in his barn and teaches him the pleasures of chasing mice and drinking fresh milk from the cows. (PURRR!), and the necessity of giving himself a tongue bath frequently (YURGH!) Still, Quackers pronounces milk way better than duckweed. This being a cat is not so bad!

But then, he begins to miss his old snail-eating friends, too. After all, they are still his first family and he loves them.

Quackers has a dual identity--duck + cat-- and he's all right with that (and even a snack of duckweed now and again), in Liz Wong's Quackers (Alfred A. Knopf, 2017). Wong's text is simple, humorous, and poignant in its gentle exploration of self-identify and community, and her illustrations, also simplicity themselves, tell the story sweetly and wittily in a way that preschoolers will understand. You are what you are, but you can be many things, and duckweed and milk can mix when shared between friends. Says Booklist, "This picture-book debut about a cat with a paw in two worlds is at times charming, at times laugh-out-loud funny, and its ugly-duckling case of mistaken identity will endear it to many."

Quacker Tracker: What Is Chasing Duck? by Jan Thomas

Duck is clearly freaking out.

QUACK!

Sheep is spooked.  What could turn Duck's waddle into a mad dash? Could it be something ...

... WILD AND HAIRY?

Her imagination summons up a something with big claws.

Sheep stampedes!

Both of them scamper, page right, almost colliding with Donkey, who asks the logical question...

WHAT?

Donkey is disturbed. What could be frightful enough to get Duck's feathers and Sheep's fleece all aflutter?

Something with terrible teeth? Donkey conjures up a mental image of a gaping mouth with sharp incisors! Egad!

Donkey dashes, page right, with Sheep and Duck leading the way.

But then they run right into Bear, who refuses to flee what he cannot see. Buck up, he counsels!

FACE YOUR FEARS!

But big, burly Bear does not offer to defend Duck and Sheep. He suggests Donkey do that. Suddenly, Duck sounds the alarm with a extra loud QUACK. He points at his pursuer!

Squirrel? SQUIRREL? SQUIRREL?

The three friends relax. Then they look at their alarmist friend, Duck, who is feeling rather foolish. After all, what's more harmless than a squirrel bearing an acorn... and... a turnip? What's with the turnip? Read on, kids....!

It's all been much ado about nothing. In this clever re-run of the Chicken Little trope, Jan Thomas's What Is Chasing Duck? (The Giggle Gang) (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017), the author has a rib-tickling conclusion in which she turns the tables on the supercilious squirrel when it's his turn to scarper from a mystery pursuer. Thomas's fearful friends are drawn in charmingly simple cartoon style, with blackline drawings set against a series of double-page spreads in strong colors, paced with crafty page turns to heighten the suspense. This silly "noodle" tale with its ditzy critters makes for a fun and easy outing for emergent readers with a lighthearted premise of first facing fears before taking flight.

Other books in the Giggle Gang series include There's a Pest in the Garden! (The Giggle Gang),My Toothbrush Is Missing! (The Giggle Gang), and My Friends Make Me Happy! (The Giggle Gang).

Free to Be... Tutu Me! Moo Moo and Mr. Quackers Present Moo Moo In A Tutu by Tim Miller

"Mr. Quackers, I have decided to become a ballerina!" Moo Moo announces.

Since Moo Moo is a large and clumsy white cow, that idea takes her staid buddy, Mr. Quackers, quite by surprise.

"But you have never taken ballet lessons!" points out the ever-practical Mr. Quackers.

To exhibit her zeal, Moo Moo executes a grand jete' over Mr. Quackers' prized bonsai tree.

KRRAASHHH!

"That last move is a little trickier than it looks, but I've almost got it!" says Moo Moo.

Moo Moo's credo is "I gotta be me!" and attired in pink leotard and tutu, the large bovine balletomane drags her doubtful pal along to the City Ballet, determined that her Terpsichorean talents be shared with the public posthaste.

"Try not to break anything," advises the sensible Mr. Quackers prophetically.

But it's not in Moo Moo to look before she leaps. She sneaks backstage and hides behind some scenery, waiting for the perfect dramatic moment to make her balletic debut, which comes with the full corps de ballet on stage.

"She spins! She leaps! She flies...!" cries Moo Moo.

"Brava!" cries the loyal Mr. Quackers.

The rest of the dance troupe and the patrons in the orchestra seats flee as Moo Moo makes an unceremonious crash landing in the middle of the bass drum in the pit.

"I think I am going to retire while I'm at the top of my game," Moo Moo remarks.

Tim Miller's brand-new Moo Moo in a Tutu (A Moo Moo and Mr. Quackers Book) (Balzer and Bray, 2017), introduces another pair of unlike and unlikely friends to the picture book pantheon peopled by odd pals like James Marshall's George and Martha, Mo Willems' Elephant and Piggie, and  Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad. The sardonic and sensible Mr. Quackers is the perfect foil for the impulsive and tempestuous Moo Moo, a fact which Miller points up in his witty thought balloons. While the premise is certainly preposterous, Miller's seriously silly illustrations carry off this story of a quixotic cow and a mild-mannered mallard who share a sweetly enduring friendship in the first of his proposed series.

Duck Calls! Five Little Ducks (Pete The Cat) by James Dean

Five little ducks went out to play

With one cool cat, leading the way.

With his red polka-dotted floatie, Pete's set for a swim. And who better to hit the pond with than five fuzzy yellow duckies?

But only four little ducks jump in.

The little duckie wearing little red shoes like Pete's school shoes doesn't hit the water.

The Pete wants everyone to splash, jump, and hop. But the duckling in the orange shirt doesn't show up.

Pete urges the rest to head for the swings, but when they arrive at the playground, there are only two playmates for Pete. When it begins to rain, Pete suggests they all head inside, but only one little duck goes along for the ride.

Pete the Cat said, "... just me and you!"

But that little duck left, too!

Where IS everybody?

Rocking the classic nursery song "Five Little Ducks," Pete the Cat counts his way down from five to one--and then none. Poor Pete! Has he lost his following?

But not to worry, in James Dean's Pete the Cat: Five Little Ducks (Harper, 2017), as Dean's new take on the old song quickly brings the whole gang back for the chorus. It's all present and accounted for in Dean's latest engaging picture book in his latest title in this easy-to-read counting book for beginners. A reset of the "little runaways" motif, this is sweet and simple, a good companion story for Eileen Christelow's perennial best-seller, Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed (A Five Little Monkeys Story).