From School Library Journal
Starred Review. PreSchool-Grade 2—A serious girl learns to loosen up after meeting a dapper duck with a wacky wardrobe and a penchant for delivering deadpan retorts. She first sees him wearing socks, and then a tie, a cowboy hat, and the always-giggle-generating underwear. The seemingly coincidental meetings follow a pattern that children will appreciate. When straitlaced Emily questions Duck's attire, he is always ready with a succinct (and silly) reply that requires him to continue on his merry way. As the story progresses, his outfits and reasons become more outlandish, causing Emily to lighten up and ultimately find a way to make Duck himself laugh in return. Duck's retorts appear in bold font and encourage readers to build on their expression. White's colorful illustrations bring the story's humor to life. The cartoon style allows the creature's wackiness to shine while providing visual clues for those just beginning to read independently. A lighthearted lesson on the benefits of laughter, this is just plain fun. Duck will fly off the shelves with the same speed as Mo Willems's Pigeon.—
Maura Bresnahan, High Plain Elementary School, Andover, MA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Flouting convention often does no serious harm, as Nedwidek seeks to demonstrate in his debut picture book about a girl who loosens up with the help of a silly bird. Emily is introduced as “a serious girl” (she’s reading The Big Book of Serious Things), but one day she meets Duck riding a unicycle and juggling fruit. Emily can’t believe that Duck is wearing white socks with red stripes, and announces “Ducks don’t wear socks.” “Cold feet!” explains Duck, as he rides away. They have several more encounters during the course of the book, during which Emily objects to his tie, his hat, and his underwear, never mentioning the unusual things he’s doing (running with a briefcase to a meeting, washing his clothes while sailing on a sailboat). White’s watercolor artwork sets aside realism in favor of humor (Duck’s green head looks like a cucumber), and wonderfully captures both Duck’s freewheeling nature and Emily’s increasing enjoyment of Duck’s eccentricities. In the end, Emily dresses up as Duck and gives him a pleasant surprise of her own. Grades K-3. --Abby Nolan
