How Do You Count a Dozen Ducklings? (review)
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- How Do You Count a Dozen Ducklings?
Mama Duck is taken aback to find she's laid a full dozen eggs, each of which turns into a sunny little duckling. Twelve is a large number for an anxious mother to count quickly, so she sorts the ducklings into six groups of two so she only has to count [End Page 117] to six; she subsequently pares down her counting further by sorting her offspring into four groups of three, then three groups of four, and finally two groups of six. A hungry old wolf hears the "one, two" count and figures he's a match for two ducklings, but he's routed by the defensive dozen. The text in this Korean import vacillates rather disconcertingly between verse and prose, but it waddles perkily along nonetheless; the reiteration of the numbers adds rhythm and structure and also provide some appealing possibilities for arithmetic curricula. Rew's mixed-media illustrations are the real showpiece here: figures are drafted with characterful ink lines and texture-rich chalky pigments, then cut and layered against swaths of paper background. Each little golden duckling is an individual, so viewers will relish finding their favorites in spread after spread (the grumpy kid with the downy flat-top is likely to be first recognized). This would pair nicely not only with other ducky stories but also with a ducky song—perhaps "Six Little Ducks" sung twice?
