Genre
Picture books for children
Stories in rhyme
Storytime standouts
Tone
Sweet
Illustration
Inventive
Muted
Theme
Overcoming fear
Subject
Animal babies
Ducklings
Ducks
Fear in animals
Swimming

This book is about a little duck who almost drowned as a baby and is now afraid to try swimming. With all his friends encouraging him and his mother's support, he decided to try to swim. He sees is able to do it and is so excited. I like that this book shows to try new things, and also shows that it might be scary. I like the support from family and friends too. ( )

With Eve Bunting and Will Hillenbrand working together this is, of course, a beautiful book, but it also carries a good message about having confidence in yourself. Children will love following the little duck as each of the animals tells her that she will not sink because she is a duck. In the end she realizes that "ducks are perfectly designed!" I highly recommend this beautiful little tale for public libraries and story times. ( )

Having experienced a close encounter with a watery death while still an egg, the eponymous duckling in this sweet picture-book confection remains terribly, terribly afraid of the water. He seeks the counsel of his friends, the frog and owl, and eventually works up the courage to attempt a dip in the nearby pond, where he discovers that he has been designed to swim...

Eve Bunting's rhyming text in I'm a Duck just begs to be read aloud - "When I was just an egg, I'm told, / I left my nest and rolled and rolled. / My mother quacked a frightened quack / then dived in deep and brought me back"- while Will Hillenbrand's soft-styled artwork captures both the beauty of Duck's world, and his simultaneous longing to swim and trepidation around the water. Recommended to hesitant young would-be swimmers, and to any child who's ever felt like a duck out of water. ( )

wonderful rhyme ( )