January 1, 2017
K-Gr 2-The delightful trio from Duck, Duck, Porcupine are back in three short stories of friendship. In the first, Big Duck gets a kite stuck in a tree. Porcupine and Big Duck attempt to knock it free but succeed only in getting more objects-a ball, a Hula-hoop, a ladder-stuck in the branches. In the second tale, Big Duck is jealous when Porcupine befriends Bee, making Big Duck jealous until she meets Ladybug. When a spider lands on Little Duck, the others assume that he has made a new friend, too. In the final tale, Big Duck and Porcupine are so focused on making a lemonade stand that they forget all about the lemonade. Good thing Little Duck is prepared. A step up from Mo Willems's "Elephant and Piggie" in reading level, Yoon's beginning reader is thoughtfully designed. The comic book layout of panels bordered in black draws attention to the sequential action. The humorous, full-color digital illustrations feature welcoming, curving black outlines. The all-dialogue black text is printed in a large font in white speech bubbles against solid colored backgrounds. The text is grounded in short, declarative, sight word-heavy sentences. Occasionally, a new word is introduced without a clear visual context clue, but in general the text is strongly supported by illustrations as well as by frequent word repetition. Contractions-"don't," "can't," "let's"-are used in a natural way, making for a smooth flow. VERDICT Cheerful, approachable, and thoughtfully created, this beginning reader will find a welcome home in public and school libraries.-Amy Seto Forrester, Denver Public Library
Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
October 15, 2016
Loud and confident Big Duck, her clever brother, Little Duck, and their agreeable purple friend, Porcupine, return in this early reader with three humorous but uneven adventures.As in series opener Duck, Duck, Porcupine (2016), Yoon uses word recognition, repetition, and visual storytelling to highlight these three friends' adventures. The simple digital art, bold, with thick black outlines and vivid colors, expertly uses facial expressions and body language to support the text. The text is presented entirely in the form of dialogue bubbles in graphic-novel style. In the first adventure, "My Kite Is Stuck!" observant Little Duck with his blue baseball cap quietly saves the day when their toys are stuck up a tree. And he does it again in the third story, when Big Duck and Porcupine work together to set up the "Best Lemonade Stand" but hilariously forget one (very!) essential item. However, the middle adventure, "A New Friend," in which this trio tries to make friends with different "bugs" (a bumblebee and a spider), fails to rise to the level of effectiveness and humor of the other two adventures. Reserved Little Duck does not talk throughout the book; but in a few special panels, he breaks the frame, looking out at the audience and making eye contact with readers. Fans of this series will enjoy this trio of friends in their second, mostly funny, outing. (Graphic early reader. 5-8)
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