Ducky Duddle Leaves Home

Cathrene Howe

3/27/2004

Review by Molly

One sunny day young Ducky Duddle wandered away from home; he hopes to see things he has not seen before. While on his adventure Ducky watches as a butterfly comes out of its cocoon and he finds a bee that makes honey. He stops to play in a mud puddle, of course, he is a duck afterall. After all that walking and playing and looking at new and interesting things Duddle was tired. He fell asleep near a hay stack and he did not wake up until after the moon was high in the sky. Now Ducky Duddle is a cold, hungry, worried little duck. Looking for home he found an owl, and a cow, and an eel. At last he made his way to a farm where he met some kindly hens and their chicks. He spent the night with one hen and her chicks. It was not until the following day with the help of a helpful black bird that Duddle found his way back to the pond where his mother and he live.

From the fertile mind of talented writer Howe comes an especially agreeable fourteen page book sure to please the target audience of little folks ages 3 - 6. Ducky Duddle and his distressing adventure when he wanders away from home and mom provides an opportunity for parents and day care workers to guide young children into talking about what to do should they wander away and not be able to find their way back home. Being lost is a scary thing. Howe's book is a good resource for providing children a way to discuss how they feel when they think they are lost.

The multi talented Howe's appealing illustrations fit the Ducky Duddle story perfectly. Vocabulary used in Ducky Duddle Leaves Home is a bit advanced for the very young readers, however Ducky Duddle Leaves Home is sure to be a story-time favorite when little ones cuddle on Mom's lap at naptime, or crowd around teacher's knee for story time at day care, or Kindergarten. I hope the author plans to include both paper and ebooks for this work. As an eBook little ones will enjoy being able to 'turn the pages themselves.' A paper copy will be an asset for use with preschool and classroom use.

Ducky Duddle Leaves Home is a good addition to the home, pre-school and Kindergarten library. This is a read-to book for the 3-6 year old set. Ducky Duddle Leaves Home is a book I would be happy to use in my own Kindergarten class.

You can find more about this book at The Writer's Exchange.