Peep and Ducky

It's play-date perfection when friends Peep and Ducky meet at the park. The bird pals romp in a mud puddle, have snacks (courtesy of Ducky's poppa), take a pee break (side by side on their port-a-potties), fight over a bucket until it breaks, apologize, dig in the sand, then part ways (with only minor whining). Everything in the art is gently rounded and painted in springlike pastel colors (pale blue for Peep, pale yellow for Ducky); despite their softness, the colors fill in the chubby shapes with a comfortable solidity. Black outlines make the main characters and objects in the foreground the crisp focal point, while objects without lines quietly recede into the background. Though simple and repetitive, the rhyming text is great fun to read aloud -- a bonus for adults, who will be asked to read this multiple times, and who won't mind experiencing this idyllic play date again and again. jennifer m. brabander