Thank you to Pink Umbrella Books for providing Beagles and Books with the opportunity to read and review Duck, Duck Moose by Joy Heyer. All opinions are my own.
Synopsis: Duck is sad because his best friend Goose is gone for the winter. Sensing his unhappiness, the animals attempt to cheer up Duck by asking him to play games. Unfortunately, the other animals’ games just don’t feel right. Duck, Duck, Pig is too messy. Duck, Duck, Snake is too slitherly. Duck Duck Porcupine and Duck Duck Moose are too dangerous! Can Duck solve his problem and cure his loneliness?
Review: Duck, Duck, Moose is a fun rhyming picture book that begs to be read aloud. Young children will especially like the onomatopoeia that Heyer uses as Duck engages in a new game with each animal. Her warm watercolor illustrations of the animals show their willingness to help Duck with his loneliness.
The theme of missing a good friend is one to which all children can relate. While the plot is predictable, I like that Heyer does not tell the reader why Duck does not enjoy each animal’s game. Children can infer based on text clues and the illustrations. What I love about the text is that Duck learns that he must look to himself to solve his problem, which is a good lesson for readers young and old.
Duck Duck Moose recently published in March 2018.
About the Author: Joy Heyer lives in Virginia with her loving husband and three of her four crazy children. Her oldest child now has a child of her own, making Joy a grandma. Her family recently convinced her to get a dog. What was she thinking? The dog now follows Joy everywhere, waits loyally at the front window every time she leaves the house, and goes berserk when she comes back, even if she was only gone for 10 seconds to get the mail. In her spare time….wait, what spare time? Whenever her children and dog permit, she loves to read, write, paint, and dream up home improvement projects.
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