DUCKS!

The odd duck looks for the right ducks in all the wrong places.

Working together once more after Ogilvy (2019), Underwood and McBeth trail a wayward duck on the search for its fellows. The text is limited to just four words, with a few others incorporated into the illustrations, so the pictures do the heavy narrative lifting as a young duckling follows a butterfly away from the pond where the other ducks swim. Determined to locate them after it realizes its mistake, the fowl is thwarted time and again. The sounds of “Squawk!” are made by a local brass band (all humans in this title present white). Webbed footprints are the work of a snorkler. Feathers? That’s a pillow fight. Only when the duck decides to get a little more proactive in its search does it discover that the other ducks have been hunting just as hard. The simplicity of the writing gives ample room for the artist’s deft employment of visual humor. At one moment the duck gives young readers a half-lidded look of pure skepticism that breaks down the fourth wall. Kids will no doubt get a kick out of seeing the duck’s expectations upset with increasing ludicrousness (a seeming duck egg that hatches a baby dinosaur climaxes the silliness). They’ll enjoy even more the happy ending waiting in the wings.

Fine-feathered and funny frolics.