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Cold Little Duck, Duck, Duck
by Lisa Westberg Peters
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Early one spring a little duck arrives at her pond and finds it still frozen, but not for long.

Horn Book Guide Reviews 2000 Fall (HG0B)

Returning to her frozen pond early in the season, a little duck thinks, thinks, thinks of spring. Before she knows it, her warm thoughts spread spring all over. The poetic text, well served by expressive watercolors, is set in a large black typeface (inviting letter and word recognition); colorful and playful typefaces are used for the rhythmic three-word refrains. Copyright 2000 Horn Book Guide Reviews

Horn Book Magazine Reviews 2000 #4 (HM0D)

In this stalwart and spirited tall tale, a female fishing prodigy harbors the decidedly un-p.c. ambition of catching the world's largest mammal. By the time she is seven years old, young Peg, clad perpetually in yellow rain hat and slicker, has hooked just about everything else: "halibut, haddock, and hagfish...smelt, sole, stickleback, and sturgeon." But she wants more. She wants a catch flashy enough to prove once and for all that she's the "World's Best Fisherman." Dismissing her father's argument that a whale is not a fish ("if it swims and spends more time in water than out, it's a fish," says Peg), she finds a berth on a whaling ship and ends up pulling a Jonah. That is to say, the whale catches her instead. Terry Widener's rounded figures look as if they might have been made by Fisher-Price, in keeping with the narrative's playful delivery and air of embellishment. Other details are delightfully depicted in pictures and words. When the whale takes a turn through the Arctic, Peg rides atop its back and keeps warm "by doing jumping jacks and singing sea shanties." Her cozy home-away-from-home in the whale's belly, furnished with assorted swallowed items, includes a vase full of tastefully arranged fish skeletons by her bedside. In the end, of course, she becomes far too fond of the whale to keep it for a trophy. The last spread shows her on land-she's already conquered the ocean, after all-striding toward a distant peak. Watch out, Mt. Everest. c.m.h. Copyright 2000 Horn Book Magazine Reviews