A Splendid Friend, Indeed by Suzanne Bloom is one of those picture books that has to be read aloud to be truly enjoyed. It is the story of an annoying duck and a studious bear. The bear is trying to read and is interrupted by the duck’s chatter. The bear tries to write instead and is again interrupted, and finally gets quite grumpy when he is trying to think and the duck again interrupts. Finally, the duck heads off merrily to get snacks and returns with a note that charms the bear out of his grumps and returns them to being splendid friends again.
The key to reading aloud this book is to give the duck a startlingly horrid voice and cuts through everything. This was the final book I read to a Kindergarten class and they loved it. They got the humor of being interrrupted. The humor of the ducks annoying voice. And then were charmed by the ending in the same way the bear was. It was a triumphant end to a story time. Great fun for both the reader and the listener.