Eva Moore (The Story of George Washington Carver) and Nancy Carpenter (Emma Dilemma) tell the suspenseful true story of Mama Duck and a rescue mission to save her five ducklings.
Out for a walk, Mama Duck leads her ducklings--Pippin, Bippin, Tippin, Dippin and Little Joe--through the town of Montauk one June day in 2000. One by one, the little ducklings follow their Mama and fall through a storm drain. "Oh dear! That could have been the end of the story. But it wasn't, because..." goes the refrain. Nancy Carpenter's charcoal and digital media illustrations depict the woman at the tollbooth, who observes the parade of feathery family members, sees the ducklings tumble and calls for help. Mama Duck scares off the bystanders, until firemen Joe, Paul and Dennis arrive on the scene. However, they can't budge the grate. ("Oh dear! That could have been the end of the story....") Moore and Carpenter show that it takes a village to save the ducklings. Perry and his pickup attach a cable and haul away the grate cover so the firemen can finish the job.
Fans of Robert McCloskey's classic Make Way for Ducklings will be heartened to know that townsfolk still stop traffic to let nature run its course. Carpenter's illustrations of the fluffy ducklings endow them with personality, while Moore's refrain will invite children to participate in this happy-ending tale. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness