1942 Caldecott Medal Winner

This is the best of the older Caldecott books, imo. Brown pencil illustrations give us a detailed vision of the ducks and their surroundings both urban and natural, with the humans looking slightly more cartoonish (as they undoubtedly look to a duck!)

Adorable story about a Mama and Daddy duck settling in Boston to raise a family. Daddy flies away for a little while and agrees to meet the Mama duck and their eight babies later in the Public Garden. In order to get there, though, they must pass through human territory under the helpful guardianship of several police officers. ( )

Independent Reading Level: Pre-K-2
Awards/Honors: Caldecott Medal

early reader, Animals, family

This is a wonderful book to introduce, taking care of the environment and animals ( )

Mr. and Mrs. Mallard are looking for the perfect place to start a family, and settle on an island in the Charles River in Boston. After hatching 8 eggs, Mrs. Mallard walks her ducklings down the street to Boston Common.

The set-up here really doesn’t hold up. The Mallards reject the river because it has too many turtles (a real threat to eggs and small ducklings), then reject the Commons because there are too many bikes (maybe a threat to ducklings, but not a threat to eggs and much less of a threat than cars), then go back to the river to lay eggs, then walk the ducklings through traffic to the Commons (just because Mr. Mallard will meet them there, not for any particular reason). Mallards are known for their poor choice of nesting places, and for walking their ducklings through traffic to get to the water, but trying to insert anthropomorphic logic doesn’t work, and they already lived in the river!

But….it’s just so cute! You can’t help but love the beautiful brown line drawings and the ducklings’ silly names. I hadn’t seen this book in 30 years but every page has been etched in my brain the whole time, and I think of it every time I see a mother duck and ducklings walking down an urban street (which is fairly often, another reason why this book just works.) ( )