Bear and Duck

Reviewed by: Deidre Walsh - Goodall Memorial Library, Sanford, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: December 7, 2015

Review

Quack is music to bear's ears. Bear is no longer happy being a bear. He wants to be a duck. He asks his friend Duck to help him. The resulting antics are amusingly portrayed in the rest of the book. Bear tries to quack, waddle, fly, build a nest and sit on a egg to keep it warm. It doesn't work out too well for bear being a duck. So in the end he decides he's happy being who he is. This is an amusing story about self-acceptance and friendship. It is a good size for group sharing or one on one, for the pre-k to 1st grade group. The text is humorously written and flows well with the illustrations. The illustrations are done in ink and watercolor and are deep hued pastels. They are uncluttered, but detailed enough down to showing the emotions on the duck's face. There really aren't any weaknesses here, but if I have to choose one it would be this. What happened to the ducklings at the beginning of the story? The duck just dropped them to help bear learn how to be a duck. What became of her ducklings? This is a wonderfully amusing story about being happy in your own skin, self-acceptance and friendship. This would work well as an introduction to young children on self-acceptance.

Overall Book Score: very good