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DAY OF THE DUCKLINGS

Name: DAY OF THE DUCKLINGS
Author: Bruce McMillan
ISBN: 0-618-04878-2

by Bruce McMillan & photographed by Bruce McMillan ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2001

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In order to help endangered eider ducks and to restore an island to its natural state, the Icelandic government has given a family permission to collect eggs of wild birds and raise them for release. Drifa, a teenage girl, and her brother and sister travel to many of the remote islands off the coast of Iceland and gather over 200 eggs from the nests of wild birds. These are taken to a remote island owned by Drifa’s father. When the eggs hatch into velvety brown chicks, Drifa raises the ducks but resists cuddling or playing with them so they don’t become pets. These ducks will need to be self-sufficient on their own. She provides food, watches over them as they take a swim, protects them from marauding seagulls, and finally allows them to return to the wild. By early August, Drifa returns home to the mainland and the ducks must find their own way in the world. While the photographs are handsome and the brief story intriguing, the reader may wish the author had provided more information in the text or afterword. For example: what happened to the birds whose eggs they stole? How did they incubate the eggs? How long did the eggs take to hatch? Still, the concept is intriguing and should lead to further exploration. (author’s note, short bibliography) (Nonfiction. 6-8)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-618-04878-2

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Walter Lorraine/Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2001

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS

- BOOK REVIEW
HOW THE LADIES STOPPED THE WIND
by Bruce McMillan & illustrated by Gunnella

- BOOK REVIEW
THE PROBLEM WITH CHICKENS
by Bruce McMillan & illustrated by Gunnella

- BOOK REVIEW
THE PICTURE THAT MOM DREW
by Kathy Mallat & Bruce McMillan & photographed by Bruce McMillan & illustrated by Kathy Mallat

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HENRY AND MUDGE AND THE STARRY NIGHT

From the Henry and Mudge series

by Cynthia Rylant & illustrated by Sucie Stevenson ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1998

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Rylant (Henry and Mudge and the Sneaky Crackers, 1998, etc.) slips into a sentimental mode for this latest outing of the boy and his dog, as she sends Mudge and Henry and his parents off on a camping trip. Each character is attended to, each personality sketched in a few brief words: Henry's mother is the camping veteran with outdoor savvy; Henry's father doesn't know a tent stake from a marshmallow fork, but he's got a guitar for campfire entertainment; and the principals are their usual ready-for-fun selves. There are sappy moments, e.g., after an evening of star- gazing, Rylant sends the family off to bed with: ``Everyone slept safe and sound and there were no bears, no scares. Just the clean smell of trees . . . and wonderful green dreams.'' With its nice tempo, the story is as toasty as its campfire and swaddled in Stevenson's trusty artwork. (Fiction. 6-8)

Pub Date: April 1, 1998

ISBN: 0-689-81175-6

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1998

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS

- BOOK REVIEW
A BOOK OF LOVES
by Cynthia Rylant ; illustrated by Cynthia Rylant

- BOOK REVIEW
HORNBEAM BY AND LARGE
by Cynthia Rylant ; illustrated by Arthur Howard

- BOOK REVIEW
HORNBEAM GETS IT DONE
by Cynthia Rylant ; illustrated by Arthur Howard

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BIG CHICKENS

by Leslie Helakoski & illustrated by Henry Cole ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2006

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With wordplay reminiscent of Margie Palatini at her best, Helakoski takes four timorous chickens into, then out of, the literal and figurative woods. Fleeing the henhouse after catching sight of a wolf, the pusillanimous pullets come to a deep ditch: “ ‘What if we can’t jump that far?’ ‘What if we fall in the ditch?’ ‘What if we get sucked into the mud?’ The chickens tutted, putted, and flutted. They butted into themselves and each other, until one by one . . . ” they do fall in. But then they pick themselves up and struggle out. Ensuing encounters with cows and a lake furnish similar responses and outcomes; ultimately they tumble into the wolf’s very cave, where they “picked, pecked, and pocked. They ruffled, puffled, and shuffled. They shrieked, squeaked, and freaked, until . . . ” their nemesis scampers away in panic. Fluttering about in pop-eyed terror, the portly, partly clothed hens make comical figures in Cole’s sunny cartoons (as does the flummoxed wolf)—but the genuine triumph in their final strut—“ ‘I am a big, brave chicken,’ said one chicken. ‘Ohh . . . ’ said the others. ‘Me too.’ ‘Me three.’ ‘Me four’ ”—brings this tribute to chicken power to a rousing close. (Picture book. 6-8)