DUCK, DUCK, MOOSE

Three title characters in search of a friend.

A bespectacled, ponytailed White kid frantically informs two ducks and one moose who are busy playing cards that Goose is gone. In a state of great agitation, they set out in search on Big Moe, a tractor. On the road, two sheep and a donkey point to the right and send them through a gate. The increasingly befuddled moose, ducks, and kid perilously but unsuccessfully try to retrieve a key but are thwarted by angry wasps that “Sting! / Stang! / Stung!” the crew. Back home in the bathtub and then bed, the bovine and fowl commiserate with one another. But then thrills and happiness erupt as Goose—who has been surfing—returns home. Sharp-eyed readers will, of course, deduce where Goose has been all along from the illustration on the title page. The characters frequently speak in triplicate in the rhyming, dialogue-only text, as in “Run, run, run!” and employ sound effects as in “Baaa, Baaa, Neeeeeigh!” The rhythm and word repetition might appeal to emergent readers, but they will wonder why the kid gets involved in the first place and how it is that the ducks and moose don’t know about Goose’s clearly planned vacation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 8-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at 55.8% of actual size.)

A slight story that runs on high but falls flat.