Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 03/01/2014 Caldecott Medal winner McCully has produced a raft of books for the I Can Read and the I Like to Read series, and the simple rhyming scheme and repetition of this entry into the latter effectively moves the story swiftly along. A mother duck and her six ducklings are walking down the street in a sylvan town when a sudden stream of water sweeps the ducklings down a storm grate. McCully offers readers a double perspective: one from the mother duck as she hurries from grate to grate trying to save her ducklings, and one from the ducklings beneath the surface, with the grates casting scary shadows upon them. The watercolor and pen-and-ink illustrations capture both the details of the sunny day and the dark drains as the chase moves from quiet town to busy city streets, ramping up the tension. It all ends with a very clever rescue scene and a nice lesson in generosity and cooperation to boot. - Copyright 2014 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 03/01/2014 PreS-Gr 1—Little ducks do indeed go: not only where their mother leads them but also where they shouldn't. In this take on a familiar story, six ducklings accidentally slip down a storm drain while their worried mother watches anxiously from the street and tries to get help. Little Ducks Go reads almost like an abridged version of Eva Moore's Lucky Ducklings (Orchard, 2013) but with a simpler text that is ideal for beginning readers. McCully uses repetition of phrases like "Little ducks go" and animal noises such as "Quack" and "Cheep Cheep" to reinforce the important aspects of early literacy embedded throughout the story. The art, created with pen and ink and watercolors, reveals a more detailed plot with additional characters and an enhanced story line. The color and hue of the pictures feel vintage, reminiscent of earlier picture book styles. The descriptive images paired with ideal text for early readers and the satisfying ending make this book a suitable addition to most collections.—Megan Egbert, Meridian Library District, ID - Copyright 2014 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Bulletin for the Center... - 05/01/2014 When a mother duck’s ducklings fall through a grate and into a storm sewer, she follows the sound of their cheeping from grate to grate her commotion alerts a human to her problem. The man opens a manhole cover and successfully retrieves the ducklings while a young girl watches; then the girl takes them to a nearby pond and releases the happily reunited birds. The minimal text of this beginning reader helpfully uses repetition of words and phrases, very short sentences (“Little ducks go. They go down”), and a large, clear sans serif font to support novice readers, especially those still at the sounding-out level. The story is more hinted at by the text than fluidly told, but the personable, detailed line and watercolor illustrations add interest to the restricted text. It’s hard to go wrong with ducklings in danger, and while this is not as stellar as Moore’s similarly themed Lucky Ducklings (BCCB 3/13), it’s quite useful, and it would be a fitting selection for a beginning reading group to tackle after a readaloud session with Moore’s book. JH - Copyright 2014 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

Loading...