Duck for a Day

Pet-deprived Abby longs to take the class pet, a duck, home overnight. The satisfying plot includes a well-deserved visit to Abby's house and an exciting chase after the duck escapes. Humorous, suspenseful, and heartfelt, the story also manages to be insightful. Frequent illustrations enhance the humor, help propel the action, and even occasionally add to characterization in this tale aimed at second graders.

Duck for a Day is a fresh take on a perennially appealing topic -- the class pet. Here, said class pet is a duck named Max, and pet-deprived Abby longs to earn the privilege of taking him home overnight. Active and involving right from the first ("Abby leaned forward and stared. The new teacher’s bag was moving"), the plot unfolds satisfactorily to include a contest to build Max the ideal "aquatic environment," a well-deserved visit to Abby’s house, and an exciting chase to find Max after he escapes from her backyard. By turns humorous, suspenseful, and heartfelt, the story also manages to be insightful (into the nature of friendship, for example, as Abby comes to like her odd classmate and next-door neighbor Noah through their shared devotion to Max). Author McKinlay uses language that is inventive but not beyond the abilities of the book’s intended second-grade audience. When Max first sits on Abby’s feet during art, for instance, she stays perfectly still: "She liked the way her feet felt all soft and warm with feathery breathing." Appropriately for its audience, this early chapter book features an open and accessible layout, with frequent pencil illustrations that enhance the humor, help propel the action, and even occasionally add to characterization. Max may be a temporary visitor, but new readers will want to take Duck for a Day home on a more permanent basis. martha v parravano