Ducks Disappearing [Hardcover]

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (Author), Tony Maddox (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1997

One...two...three...Willie is having fun counting the eleven ducklings parading behind mama duck outside the motel restaurant. But soon he realizes that some of the ducklings seem to be disappearing, and the grown-ups he tells don't take him very seriously. It's up to a resourceful young boy to show that good counting and caring are called for to get to the bottom of things.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Despite some potentially attractive components-ducklings, a boy who likes to count, a mystery and a rescue mission-this picture book from Newbery Medalist Naylor (Shiloh) is surprisingly lackluster. While having lunch with his mom at a motel, a boy spies a mother duck and all 11 of her ducklings marching by the restaurant window. Subsequent head counts, however, reveal that the ducklings are disappearing one by one, but Willie's attempts to alert motel employees about the problem fall on deaf ears. When the concerned youngster discovers that the missing baby birds have fallen into a storm drain, the adults, after putting up a little more resistance, finally rescue the brood. Willie's counting skill and perseverance pay off, yet the payoff to readers of this poorly paced and inadequately characterized story is far less obvious. Drawing on a pale, at times washed-out palette, Maddox's spare watercolors are stiff and, like Naylor's text, offer little variety or stimulation. Ages 5-8.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 1. Willie and his mother are eating breakfast in a motel coffee shop while his father attends a meeting. Willie notices one mother duck and 11 ducklings in the courtyard, but when he looks again a moment later, there are only 10. How he solves the puzzle of the Ducks Disappearing makes for a satisfying tale that is a cross between a mystery and a counting book. The smoothly told story features an unusual setting, a "love the animals" message, and an observant child who perseveres despite the busy (and fairly oblivious) adults around him. The softly colored watercolors convey the mood and action nicely, using simple cartoon figures that are round and appealing. An attractive and absorbing book packed with child appeal.?Lauralyn Persson, Wilmette Public Library, IL
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Atheneum; 1st edition (February 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689319029
• ISBN-13: 978-0689319020
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 8.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,404,658 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I guess I've been writing for about as long as I can remember. Telling stories, anyway, if not writing them down. I had my first short story published when I was sixteen, and wrote stories to help put myself through college, planning to become a clinical psychologist. By the time I graduated with a BA degree, however, I decided that writing was really my first love, so I gave up plans for graduate school and began writing full time.

I'm not happy unless I spend some time writing every day. It's as though pressure builds up inside me, and writing even a little helps to release it. On a hard-writing day, I write about six hours. Tending to other writing business, answering mail, and just thinking about a book takes another four hours. I spend from three months to a year on a children's book, depending on how well I know the characters before I begin and how much research I need to do. A novel for adults, because it's longer, takes a year or more. When my work is going well, I wake early in the mornings, hoping it's time to get up. When the writing is hard and the words are flat, I'm not very pleasant to be around.

Getting an idea for a book is the easy part. Keeping other ideas away while I'm working on one story is what's difficult. My books are based on things that have happened to me, things I have heard or read about, all mixed up with imaginings. The best part about writing is the moment a character comes alive on paper, or when a place that existed only in my head becomes real. There are no bands playing at this moment, no audience applauding--a very solitary time, actually--but it's what I like most. I've now had more than 120 books published, and about 2000 short stories, articles and poems.

I live in Bethesda, Maryland, with my husband, Rex, a speech pathologist, who's the first person to read my manuscripts when they're finished. Our sons, Jeff and Michael, are grown now, but along with their wives and children, we often enjoy vacations together in the mountains or at the ocean. When I'm not writing, I like to hike, swim, play the piano and attend the theater.

I'm lucky to have my family, because they have contributed a great deal to my books. But I'm also lucky to have the troop of noisy, chattering characters who travel with me inside my head. As long as they are poking, prodding, demanding a place in a book, I have things to do and stories to tell.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful Educational Book for the Younger Ones, April 9, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Ducks Disappearing (Hardcover)

This book is very educational in teaching the younger ones about counting. First, Willie counts 11 ducklings and the mother duck, then they begin to disappear and he recounts them. This will help children understand how to do "take-away" problems they will need to do when they start kindergarten. In addition, this is a lovely, heartfelt story about the love a little boy has about the ducks at the hotel. He calls out for someone to help the ducks and then insists that the hotel keep them because they don't have anywhere to go. This is truly a very wonderful story that any parent will enjoy reading to their children.