I’ve been getting very little writing done at the park lately.  I try to go over there every Saturday morning; on nice days I write by the pond, on nasty days I go into the library to write (there’s actually a library in the park–how cool is that?)  Lately, the weather has been nice–but the pond has been distracting.  You see, it’s duckling season.

I’ve been spending a fair amount of my writing time watching little fuzzy balls of fluff float around the pond.  I’ve identified two families with babies.  There’s a single mother duck who was chasing six children around on a recent Saturday, and two-parent family with a mere two off-spring.

All of this duck-watching does in fact lead to a book review!  Because the duck-watching very naturally led me back to Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey.

I love the artwork of this book.  I think that’s really why I wanted to reread it, to look at the cute duckling drawings.  McCloskey’s ducklings have longer necks than mine (maybe they’re older?) but they’re just right for fuzziness.

Although I’ve yet to see the ducklings at my pond walk in a neat line like McCloskey’s.  Mama Duck seems to spend most of her time herding ducklings around.  They stray off in all directions, and every so often one realizes it’s gone too far away, panics, and has to be rescued.  They start cheeping, and sometimes they go shooting over the water back to the rest, while other times I’ve seen Mama Duck go after a strayed duckling.  It’s adorable to watch, but I think it would be exhausting to be a duck mother.

Back to Make Way for Ducklings.  I admit I was a little disappointed by the plotline.  I remembered the ducklings’ journey as a bit more epic.  Then I went back to the story to find it’s only a couple of blocks.

But it may be silly to discuss whether the plot of a picture book is sufficiently epic.  It was cute, and well-worth a visit just for the drawings.  If you know any ponds with ducks near you, you might want to visit them too–there could be ducklings to distract you too!