I'm a duck by Eve Bunting

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Ill. by Will Hillenbrand. Candlewick Press, 2018. ISBN 9780763680329
(Age: 4+) Themes: Fear, Overcoming fear. In simple rhyming lines, Bunting tells the tale of a duck, which when an egg, rolls into the pond. Mother duck rescues her errant egg, but when it hatches, the resulting duckling is afraid to go into the water.
The story of how the duck overcomes its fears takes up the rest of the story, as other pond animals support the duckling in its attempts to take the plunge, giving a range of different advice.
The owl, the frog, and its siblings all offer suggestions, but in the end it is the duckling which does something about its concerns.
In simple rhyme, useful for introducing younger children to the idea of rhyme, and soft pastel like illustrations, the story the readers will have no difficulty understanding the message of the story and be able to share stories of their own fears and how they overcame them.
Fran Knight

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