One Duck Stuck Book

One Duck Stuck: A Mucky Duck Counting Book, by Phyllis Root with illustrations by Jane Chapman, tells the delightful story of a poor duck "stuck in the muck, down by the deep green marsh" (p. 1). A variety of different animals, counting by numbers 2-10, make their way to the pond to try to save Duck from the marsh. The reader seems skeptical at first, but listeners of all ages will be surprised and excited with this happy ending! The story fits perfectly into the counting genre of picture books for young children.

a.) One Duck Stuck, not only helps the reader with counting 1-10, predictions and rhyming words, the great use of onomatopoeias will also make this story enjoyable for all.

b.) The story begins with "one duck stuck in the muck" (p.1) and ends with "they all help the duck who got stuck in the muck" (p. 25). As each animal, one more than the previous, tries to help "the duck stays stuck deep in the muck down by the ….marsh". The rhyming words and predictable text both encourage listeners to read along and predict what will happen next. Also, the onomatopoeias used through the story create fun for the reader and listener.

c.) Great examples of the rhymes and onomatopoeia include phrases such as "7 snails making slippery trails - sloosh, sloosh", "8 eight possums nibbling on blossoms - slosh, slosh", "9 snakes leaving little wakes - slink, slink", and the "10 dragonflies zooming through the skies - zing, zing" (p. 13, 15, 17, 19). Putting together their "splish, clomp, pleep, plop, plunk, slosh, slosh, slink and zing", the animals are able to get the duck out of the muck (p. 23-24)!

The counting, rhyming and onomatopoeic text found in the book will be great for young children. Educators and parents can easily create many lessons to feature with this picture book. Children will learn how to count with the fun animals on each page; they will also be able to read along with the predictable and repeated text found throughout the book. In my classroom, I would make a file folder game with the animals, having the students match the number to the correct number of animals. The students will then have to put the animals in numerical order. The students will learn how to count and will also learn how to recognize the numbers 1-10. The students and I would also find all the rhyming words from the story.