Little Ducks Go

by Emily Arnold McCully

Overview

Now in a 6 x 9 size—six little ducks are whisked down a storm drain, and it's up to Mother Duck to get them safely back home!

Mother takes her ducklings for a walk in town. "Look out, little ducks!" she says as they pass an open drain. But the little ducks get swept up in a gush of water and washed down through the grate! Mother finds a kind-looking man—can he help? "Quack, quack!" He comes back with a net, and the little ducks are saved! Using a combination of full-page spreads and vignette-style drawings, McCully's adorably expressive art enhances a simple, repetitive text perfect for beginning readers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780823439881
Publisher:	Holiday House
Publication date:	05/08/2018
Series:	I Like to Read Series
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

EMILY ARNOLD MCCULLY has won many prestigious awards, including a Christopher Award for Picnic and the Caldecott Medal for Mirette on the High Wire. She summers in Chatham, New York.

Editorial Reviews

“It all ends with a very clever rescue scene and a nice lesson in generosity and cooperation to boot.”

Booklist

Little ducks go on an adventure in this minimal text story in the “I Like to Read” series. As they walk along with their mother duck, they are washed down a drain. They paddle along down there as their mother runs from drain to drain following them. Finally she stops at a drain cover and waits. A man comes to open the drain and fish the ducklings out with a net. “They are safe!” A young girl takes them all away in a box. On the beginning end pages we have seen the mother duck out in the woods. On the back end pages, the girl waves as the mother and ducklings swim away back to the woods. The naturalistic illustrations in pen and ink and watercolors focus on the duck family. Vignettes, single, and double-page pictures move the simple tale along. Reviewer: Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz; Ages 4 to 7.

Children's Literature - Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz

03/01/2014
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

School Library Journal

2014-01-29
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)

Kirkus Reviews