Boatyard Ducklings

By Heather Austin

Book Overview

With pencil illustrations and a storyline about the protection of ducklings, Boatyard Ducklings is bound to call to mind Robert McCloskey's classic Make Way for Ducklings. Far from being imitative, however, this tale of a little girl's love and care for young creatures has a magic all its own. Here author and illustrator Heather Austin memorably tells and beautifully pictures a true story about the young daughter of a Maine boatyard owner. When the girl discovers a mallard hen's nest in a dinghy, she is filled with delight. The girl befriends the duck and, when the young ones hatch, she becomes their protector.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0892726636
• ISBN13: 9780892726639
• Release Date: April 2008
• Publisher: Down East Books
• Length: 32 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 8.8" x 11.2"
• Age Range: 4 to 8 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 3

Customer Reviews

Beautiful, shaded black-and-white illustrations in a realistic style grace this thoughtful picturebo

Boatyard Ducklings is a captivating children's picturebook about two young girls spending summer at seaside Maine, who discover that a wild mother mallard has laid a nest of eggs in their rowboat! Leaving the nest undisturbed, they take joy in watching the ducklings hatch and grow. Their grandfather warns them, "I hope you're not feedin' 'em. Ducks that learn to depend on people for food sometimes stay around all winter. But Maine in December is no place for a duck!" The girls observe as the ducks begin molting and conserving energy for their upcoming migration - just like the girls themselves will have to leave the Maine coast when fall comes and they have to leave to attend school. Beautiful, shaded black-and-white illustrations in a realistic style grace this thoughtful picturebook, with text sufficiently detailed to be suitable for young people who are almost ready to progress to more complex reading material.