Do Like a Duck Does!

by Judy Hindley, Ivan Bates (Illustrator)

Overview

"Story hour alert! Here’s a book with a clever premise, a bouncy text, and sunny, funny pictures. . . . Supremely satisfying." — Booklist (starred review)

Mama Duck has a good hunch that the big brown creature waddling behind her babies is no duck! As the foxy impostor sneaks closer and closer to Mama Duck’s trailing brood, little ones will delight in shouting out his identity. Infectious rhythms and fresh, expressive watercolors liven up the pursuit, which ends when Mama Duck confronts the villain, beak to snout, and beats him at his own game.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763632847
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	02/13/2007
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	874,052
Product dimensions:	8.13(w) x 8.06(h) x 0.19(d)
Lexile:	AD390L (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Judy Hindley, who has written more than fifty books for children, has a special knack for capturing the language and subjects that delight preschoolers. Among her books are THE BIG RED BUS, THE PERFECT LITTLE MONSTER, and THE BEST THING ABOUT A PUPPY. She is also the author of the immensely popular EYES, NOSE, FINGERS, AND TOES.

Ivan Bates debuted as an illustrator with his art for Sam McBratney’s THE DARK AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS. He is also the illustrator of JUST ONE! and JUST YOU A ME by Sam McBratney. DO LIKE A DUCK DOES!, Ivan Bates’s first collaboration with Judy Hindley, features some of the animals on the farm where he lives with his wife and baby son.

Editorial Reviews

A hungry fox tries to convince a duck family that he's just a "big, brown" version of one of them: " `Yes I am!' says the stranger./ It's really, really true!/ I can waddle, I can scuttle./ I can strut a little, too./ I'm a duck!/ I'm a duck!/ I'm a duck like you!" But Mama Duck exposes his ruse by putting the fox through his duck paces, making him wallow in a mud puddle, eat bugs and swim underwater. "I really always knew that was no duck," says Mama triumphantly, as the sopping, half-drowned fox finally slinks away. Hindley's (A Song of Colors) tight, percussive rhymes give the story a drumbeat momentum as the climax nears. Bates's (Just You and Me) watercolors possess a sunlit, translucent grace, yet he still reaps plenty of comedy from his characterizations whether it's Mama Duck's narrowed-eyed maternal skepticism or the fox's woeful look as he plunges into the drink. Other details, such as the fox's snout peeking out from the flower pots or piglets romping in the mud with the ducklings, keep the setting cheerful and familiar, and undercut the villain's menace. Ages 3-5. (Feb.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

K-Gr 2-Following the path of her Horned Toad Prince (Peachtree, 2000), Hopkins fractures "The Three Billy Goats Gruff," transferring the action to the Southwest. Fancied-up armadillo sisters en route to a dance hall follow tradition and trick a female coyote that waits in the drainpipe under the highway for "armadilly chili" ingredients and fashion-accessory possibilities. Comic resolution sashays in when the creature accepts third sister Dilly's invitation to join the "girls' night out." Droll turns of phrase ("Lilly- knew how to shake her shell on the dance floor") and hints of dialect add fun and flavor to the tale. Unfortunately, Brooks's acrylic, gouache, colored-pencil, and ink renderings of the characters at night border on the disturbing. The crazed-eyed and emaciated coyote's vertebrae bulge, and her fur and eating utensils are flecked with red. Wide, heavy-lidded eyes and pouting lips diminish the heroines' appeal. Daylight scenes prove friendlier. Team this with Susan Lowell's The Three Little Javelinas (Rising Moon, 1992) for visual balance while exploring time-honored stories revisited in the West.-Gay Lynn Van Vleck, Henrico County Library, Glen Allen, VA Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

Five little ducklings follow their mother and do what all ducks do, but when a sixth large and very hairy duckling joins the line, Mama Duck must use her ingenuity to root out the imposter. Waddling and hopping along, all the ducklings are trying their best to be model ducks, but suddenly a big, brown fox creeps on the scene. Mama is suspicious, but she decides to put this new "duck" through some tests. The fox does his best to follow Mama's directions. He walks with a waddle; takes a dip in the mud puddle to cool off; and even eats a worm, but it is clear that a worm is not what he has in mind for a snack as he creeps up on one of the baby ducklings. Mama's suspicions grow as the fox fails every test. Finally, she commands all the ducklings to hop in the river. "Down go the ducklings, all tails up! And down goes the stranger. Glup! Glup! Glup! / So where are all the ducklings now? Here they all come. Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Every one." All except the hairy, out-smarted stranger who slinks off towards home. Whimsical watercolor drawings fill each page highlighting the fox's silly antics. The rhyming text filled with repetitive phrases make this a natural for reading aloud. (Picture book. 3-5)

Kirkus Reviews