Duck’s Vacation

Author-artist Soffer adds to the increasingly crowded shelf of metafictional picture books in a playful story that has readers wreaking havoc on a duck’s island getaway. Relaxing with an ice-cream cone in a beach chair, Duck couldn’t he happier. “Whoa! What just happened? Who turned the page?” he shouts as his ice cream goes flying. Realizing that readers are responsible, Duck begs them to stop turning pages, but books don’t work that way, and Duck is soon fending off pinching crabs, inclement weather, and pirates who want to turn him into soup. While Soffer’s story and his much-protesting protagonist have plenty of literary forebears (starting with The Monster at the End of This Book), the conceit works well—who hasn’t felt like an unseen power is making vacation fly by too quickly? Handsomely executed colored pencil illustrations play up Duck’s growing indignation, and Soffer doubles down on the schadenfreude with an ending that lets readers ruin not just Duck’s day but that of the pirates as well. Ages 2–5. Agent: Rena Rossner, Deborah Harris Agency. (May)