Keep Up, Duck!

This winning tale from Ivan Bates and late author Rachel Bates follows Puck, the littlest of Mamma Duck’s fuzzy yellow ducklings, who struggles to keep up with the rest of the brood as they head for the lily pond. When Mamma calls, slightly bedraggled Puck eagerly comes up with a shrewd solution. Assessing the human-propelled swan boats (“Splish! Splash! Swish! Swosh!”), Puck scales the side of one of the boats, vaults onto the knee of a startled passenger, atop the boat’s prow, then into the water again (“Hop! Hop! Hop! Plop!”). Now he’s caught up with his family. The next time he falls behind, kinetic watercolor and colored pencil panels by Ivan Bates (The Hide-and-Scare Bear) show him hopping from a skateboard to a passing bicycle, and next from the snout of one friendly dog to another. Though smaller than his siblings, he’s now faster than them all. Plentiful sound words enhance the panel artwork’s fizzy action as the collaborators champion creative problem-solving throughout a contemporary story in which the duckling makes his own way. Human background characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 3–7. [em](Apr.) [/em]