Customer Reviews

Off to School, Baby Duck!

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Like Hest's other books, this is a crowd pleaser. I just got done using this in our first August storytime and it was very well received by the 3s-6s. I heard lots of giggles because some of the dialogue is so dead-on accurate. I recommend this to all those parents with a tentative child about to enter the halls of learning.

We love Baby Duck books. My son is 4 years old and I would think these books are a little tame for his tastes but he loves Baby Duck. The themes touch on the insecurities kids face and how they overcome them with a little verbal support. Very sweet and timeless even though it feels like you are reading a book from the 50s.

Ah, Baby Duck. At last we meet again. You might wonder why I continue to read "Baby Duck" books when they have, in the past, struck me as insipid or downright dull. But the fact of the matter is that the New York Public Library system adores Baby Duck. They can't get enough of her. In fact, if you go online right now and go to their "100 Picture Books Everyone Should Know", I'll bet you anything in the world that there's a Baby Duck title somewhere on the list. And since I have sworn to read and review each and every one of the books that appear on that list, I am bound to read books like "Off To School, Baby Duck". Now admittedly, this book is heads and tails better than "You're the Boss, Baby Duck". It deals with the very real concerns children face when beginning school for the first time. However, there is no denying that the book is not exactly on par with works by Rosemary Wells or Maurice Sendak. Though a nice enough title, "Off To School, Baby Duck" is, at its heart, mildly insipid.

Baby Duck has a problem. A problem by the name of "school". Finally old enough to go to Kindergarten for the very first time, Baby Duck isn't exactly pleased with the prospect. Though her parents try to cajole her in a variety of different ways, Baby is fairly certain that school is a mighty frightening prospect. On the day in question, she dresses slowly and drags herself with her parents to the school house. Once outside, she meets up with Grampa. Ever a fount of wisdom Grampa slowly shows Baby Duck that school can be fun. She meets her new teacher, Miss Posy, who isn't mean at all. She makes a new friend in a boy named Davy Duck. And by the time it's time for school, Baby may still be nervous, but she knows that school can be a really fun time if she's ready for it.

Though I've never been a huge fan of Jill Barton's illustrations, she does a particularly nice job in this book. Barton has somehow found a way to draw an outdoor landscape that reflects that odd time of the year known as September. In this book, the leaves on the trees are green with tinges of brown and gold. Baby duck wears a button up sweater appropriate for late summer/early fall temperatures. It's hard to fault Barton's pictures here. When Baby is nervous, you have a lovely picture of her clutching Grampa's arm, half-hiding her face there in nervousness. Of course, I've always found it mildly disturbing that all the ducks in Baby's world look identical. They just sport different sets of clothing so that you can tell them apart. Erg.

And then there's that old problem with the Baby Duck books that inevitably raises its ugly head at some point in the story. Baby Duck is forever singing songs that express her mood. The problem is, these songs never rhyme or scan. I'm a huge fan of Hoban's, "Bread and Jam For Frances", which also deals with a toddler singing. The difference is, Frances's songs are great. Baby Duck? Not so much. To Amy Hest I offer this plea: How hard can it be to write a charming rhyming jingle in a picture book???? Okay, maybe we're supposed to believe that Baby Duck's songs are akin to the songs sung by children in her age range. Songs that little kids make up that never seem to have any cohesion to them. Well, who cares? Doesn't Ms. Hest know that it's incredibly difficult to read a book out loud to large groups of preschoolers if you can find a rhythm with which to read them a song or verse?

Ah well. Perhaps I ask too much of these books. "Baby Duck" titles are inevitably less interesting than those written by people like Kevin Henkes (if you want an alternative going to school theme, try his fabulous "Wemberly Worried") or the aforementioned Rosemary Wells. In any case, of the Baby Duck books I've already seen, this one is better than most. Just don't expect anything brilliantly original.