This week, I'm reviewing One Duck Stuck by Phyllis Root and illustrated by my favorite ego-manical pencil wielding children's book illustrator Jane Chapman. One Duck Stuck is an animal counting book. The illustrations of this book are actually pretty good, but the writing in One Duck Stuck is atrocious. This disconnect between the author and illustrator is so obvious that it almost seems like the pictures in One Duck Stuck were meant for a different book! It is for that reason that this review will be done a little differently. After pointing out the most spectacularly bone headed sentence in the history of children's books, I will retell the story of One Duck Stuck by using only the pictures pulled from the book. These pictures seem to tell a much different story than the writer had intended.
The setting: The deep green marsh or sleepy, slimy marsh, depending on what part of the sentence you are in
The characters: One duck, 2 fish, 3 moose, 4 crickets, 5 frogs, 6 skunks, 7 snails, 8 possums, 9 snakes, 10 dragonflies, and the marsh
This page makes me want to vomit. There are four commas and three different ways in which the "marsh" is explained to the readers all in one sentence. Is it the "marsh" or the "sleepy, slimy marsh" or the "deep green marsh?" Its just so utterly, grammatically wrong that I am dumbfounded that any editor with any self-respect let this page get published in an actual real book. How could anyone think that sentence was okay? When I read this book to my daughter, I completely skip the "down by the deep green march" part because it is stylistically obnoxious.
Now that the duck is stuck, he shouts for help from anyone that can hear him. The animals respond by coming to the duck.
Two fish splash the duck in the face with water. No luck. Still stuck.
Three moose lick the duck on the head. No luck. Still stuck.
Four crickets hop over the duck. No luck. Still stuck.
Seven snails crawl on the duck and slime the duck with goo. No luck. Still stuck.
After getting splashed, licked, jumped over, and slimed, the duck just pulls his leg out. "Enough of this," says the duck.
The illustration of this page is so confusing! In the story, all the animals team up and help the duck, but in the picture, that isn't happening. "The duck just plucked himself from the muck? What the f***? Why did all these animals try to help him if could just pull his leg out!?!?"
And what does "spluck" even mean, anyway? Did the writer know that "pluck" is actually a word that can be used in the exact same context, means the same thing as what the writer thinks "spluck" means, and rhymes with "duck?" This is a situation where the writer of this book was over-thinking it.
In summation, a duck gets stuck and a bunch of animals help him get out. Nothing really special here. Despite the horrid grammar and odd illustrations that don't seem to show the same story that the narrator does, Lily loves this book. She gives it 5 out of 5 stars. It can be purchased at Amazon for $15.01 or you can find it at a used book store for a dollar. Just don't get stuck reading and rereading this book over and over again. Happy reading!
