Little Ducks Go

February 15, 2014
This tale of duckling rescue has a surprisingly large cast for a 32-page picture book. There's mother duck and her six ducklings, of course. There's the boy who stops traffic when the mother duck runs across the street after the ducklings are washed down through a grating. There's the middle-aged man who shows up with a net to fish the baby ducklings out of the storm drain. There's a little red-haired girl--his daughter?--who holds the ducklings in a cardboard box as he drives the ducks to a nearby pond in his car. She waves to them as they swim safely away. Even a neighborhood dog stops by to provide moral support. Skeptics may roll their eyes at the idea that it takes a village to save a duck, but they will probably still be charmed by the pictures. It would be easy to believe that the energetic pen-and-watercolor illustrations were sketched from life as McCully followed ducks around her neighborhood. The story may seem too sweet to be true, even though it resembles a real-life incident in Montauk, N.Y., that was also the subject of Lucky Ducklings, by Eva Moore and illustrated by Nancy Carpenter (2013). Very few readers will remain unmoved as that mother duck runs from grating to grating, trying to catch a glimpse of her children; everyone loves a duck. (Early reader. 3-8)

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March 1, 2014

PreS-Gr 1-Little ducks do indeed go: not only where their mother leads them but also where they shouldn't. In this take on a familiar story, six ducklings accidentally slip down a storm drain while their worried mother watches anxiously from the street and tries to get help. Little Ducks Go reads almost like an abridged version of Eva Moore's Lucky Ducklings (Orchard, 2013) but with a simpler text that is ideal for beginning readers. McCully uses repetition of phrases like "Little ducks go" and animal noises such as "Quack" and "Cheep Cheep" to reinforce the important aspects of early literacy embedded throughout the story. The art, created with pen and ink and watercolors, reveals a more detailed plot with additional characters and an enhanced story line. The color and hue of the pictures feel vintage, reminiscent of earlier picture book styles. The descriptive images paired with ideal text for early readers and the satisfying ending make this book a suitable addition to most collections.-Megan Egbert, Meridian Library District, ID

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2014
Preschool-K Caldecott Medal winner McCully has produced a raft of books for the I Can Read and the I Like to Read series, and the simple rhyming scheme and repetition of this entry into the latter effectively moves the story swiftly along. A mother duck and her six ducklings are walking down the street in a sylvan town when a sudden stream of water sweeps the ducklings down a storm grate. McCully offers readers a double perspective: one from the mother duck as she hurries from grate to grate trying to save her ducklings, and one from the ducklings beneath the surface, with the grates casting scary shadows upon them. The watercolor and pen-and-ink illustrations capture both the details of the sunny day and the dark drains as the chase moves from quiet town to busy city streets, ramping up the tension. It all ends with a very clever rescue scene and a nice lesson in generosity and cooperation to boot.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2014
Out for a stroll with Mama, five ducklings are swept down a storm drain. McCully's watercolors tell the story, matching the natural language of the text. All ends well with a rescue and reunion with Mama. It's improbable that the mother duck would wait patiently during the rescue and happily ride in a car after, but most readers won't mind the slight missteps.

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)