Do Dare Duck by Joyce Dunbar and Jane Massey (Children's, Picture book, 10/10E)

February 2014, Jonathan Cape, 32 pages, Paperback, Review copy

Themes: being active, doing dares, animal antics

 

Content: Lots of humour

Summary from Random House Children's Publishing

Does Duck dazzle as much as the peacock? Does he dawdle like the tortoise, or does he dash like the hare? No? Well, what does Duck do? Does Duck . . . dare?

Nayuleska's thoughts

This book made me smile a lot. Just when I got into the sequence of there being a question of what the duck did followed by who did the action there was a surprise twist which was clever and funny. I liked how through watching duck readers get to explore what certain animals do/look like/sound like.

The different animal footprints on the inner pages provides fun in figuring out which animal goes with each print (this isn't a suggested activity, just one which said hello to me) I enjoyed the plainish background which changed colour on every page which put the focus on the large illustration of the animals whose actual technique of illustrating varied and seemed to enhance the type of fur/feathers/other coat that they had. I liked the mud flying up with the hare and what happened when they all got together was quite  inventive writing! 

Find out more on both Joyce's website, and Jane's website. 

Suggested read

For more animal antics which include a dare (sort of...) check out The Great Snortle Hunt by Claire Freedman and Kate Hindley (Children's, Picture book, 8/10E)