Lucky Ducklings

     Sometimes, the best stories are right in front of our eyes, or in the case of author Eva Moore, right in her seaside hometown of Montauk, New York.  Moore brilliantly turns a local news story about the misadventures of a momma duck and her babies, into a delightfully charming storybook, aptly titled, Lucky Ducklings.  

       As the tale begins, on a warm June morning, a momma duck decided to take her family of five baby ducklings out of the pond for a walk to explore the area outside of their home in a local park. When mom steps across a large storm drain effortlessly, tiny Pippin. Bippin,Tippin, Dippin and Little Joe follow behind,  But, as any good baby duck knows, whatever momma does, they must do.  So one by one, each little duckling disappears into the storm drain.  “Oh, dear!” exclaims author Moore. “That could have been the end of the story. But it wasn’t, because …” (This is a repeated refrain in the book—”that could have been the end of the story, but…”—and it goes far, without ever being annoying, in propelling the story forward.) Since someone had seen what had happened—a friendly tollbooth worker, that is—the fire department is summoned, while a crowd quickly gathers over the drain.         

     Three brave local firemen, Joe, Paul and Dennis rush to the scene, and just when they encounter difficulty in opening the grate (while simultaneously trying to keep momma duck calm), a man named Perry quickly thought to use the cable in his truck to pry open the grate.  With the community coming together to help save the little ducklings from harm, Pippin, Bippin, Tippin, Dippin, and Little Joe are rescued, one by one, to the waiting wings of their momma.

     Young children, like my class of first grade students who recently invited me to be their monthly special guest reader, will be immediately drawn into this charming tale.   While Moore’s story is based upon a true event that occurred in Montauk in 2000, her prose as well as Carpenter’s simple, yet beautifully rendered illustrates shines with a timeless quality.  While Lucky Ducklings quickly reminded me of author Robert McCloskey’s 1941 Caldecott Award winning classic, Make Way for Ducklings, I appreciated the updated issues that Moore worked into this story.  Carpenter’s images of garbage and litter in the duck’s park, and by showing the ducklings dirty as they emerge from the storm drain, will, as it did with my students, open up a dialogue with your children about the importance of taking care of our environment that we share with animals. 

Lucky Ducklings

Written by Eva Moore

llustrated by Nancy Carpenter

Publisher:  Orchard Books, an imprint of Scholastic

ISBN: 978-0-439-44861-1

Website: www.scholastic.com

Retail:  $16.99

For ages 5 to 8