THE DUCK BOOK

Life’s full of important questions.

“When you hear ‘duck,’ ” asks Kuenster, “do you lower your head? / Or do you smile?” Once introduced, a white-feathered, blue-eyed duck leads readers to consider a series of other questions, many of which use rhyming words for emphasis (and silliness): “Did you ever grow a carrot so big? / It was too big for your pet pig.” Simple with bold hues, the illustrations have the look of childlike doodles reimagined through MS Paint. They are engaging, but storytellers reading the tale aloud will quickly find the fatal flaw of the story; the majority of the questions have yes or no answers, shutting down many opportunities for conversation, predictive thinking, and imaginative discussions. The final question is surprisingly heavy for the tale. “If an elephant lifted you…and asked to be freed / should his roomies / be free too?” Readers may ask if the jail cell (for an elephant, a frog, and a snake) is a zoo or a prison. Astute readers may guess it’s the prison of the book itself, as all the animals appeared in earlier questions. There are no answers, which may please some readers but will vex others. It’s a strange, ill-suited book, one that eats away at readers as they contemplate the logic behind the questions, the artistic approach, and the development of the story. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Odd and off-putting.