Do the Puddle Stomp for Two!
By Carin Bramsen
Random House Books for Young Readers, $17.99, 32 pages
It’s a beautiful sunny day and a plucky yellow duckling is playing by himself, tromping through a green field. To his surprise, he sees another duck he can play with, and he is thrilled. It’s time to go dance in mud puddles, because two friends doing the puddle stomp is better than just one. But what if, instead of a duck, the new guy is really a grumpy cat who doesn’t want to play? Will the young duckling get a new friend or just a big disappointment?
In Hey, Duck!, author Carin Bramsen tells the sweet rhyming tale of how two pals meet and get to know each other after a rough start. Because the duckling doesn’t know much about cats and thinks the stranger is a duck like him, he asks the new guy various questions, like why he walks on four feet rather than two webbed feet, why he has such odd looking feathers (it’s really cat fur!) and why he has such a long tail.
At first the cat is annoyed, but then he sees that the duck is just confused. Beginning readers will learn that sometimes first impressions aren’t what matter most. Get to know a person (or animal!) better before making a final decision about friendship. Both the duckling and the cat learn a very important lesson: friends come in all shapes, colors and sizes. Both the duck and cat learn that whether someone has fur or feathers, wings or claws, a friend loves you just the way you are!
Cats notoriously dislike getting wet. Read Hey, Duck! to find out if this kitty will brave the water in order to do the puddle stomp with his new pal.
Reviewed by Kathryn Franklin
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