Duck Soup by Jackie Urbanovic.

There is sort of a fowl (not foul) trend happening today.  Remember last year when all the books were bunny books?  Well this year may be the year of the bird. 

Returning to the world of Duck at the Door, Max the duck is creating his own soup recipe for the first time.  When he heads out to the garden for an herb, his friends come in and wonder where he is.  The soup smells fantastic and they think about eating some, until it occurs to them that Max has fallen in the soup and been cooked.  They call into the pot for him, beg him to grab the spoon, and finally pour the soup through a strainer and down the drain.  Max returns from the garden to find his soup gone, his friends relieved and realizes that it is best that he did not end up making duck soup.

There are two winning components of this book.  First is the art of Urbanovic, which is humorous, cartoony, and charming all at once.   All of the animal characters have their own personal vibe that comes through not only in the text but in the art.  Even better, this charming art is big enough and vibrant enough to be used with quite a large group.  The second winning component is the pacing of the book.  It begins with a slow savoring of soup, a litany of soups that Duck has made before, and a pondering of how to improve the recipe.  The friends sidle in happily, but then the panic sets in and the pace reaches a breakneck speed.  The relief is expressed in the pacing too as they all sit down to a soupless supper. 

This is one for the story time pile.  It shouldn’t be saved for duck or bird story times, but instead it should be pulled out whenever children may get restless.  The humor only improves with additional readings.  Highly recommended for a great laugh for 4-6 year olds.

Blue Goose by Nancy Tafuri.

Farmer Gray goes away and Blue Goose, Red Hen, Yellow Chick and White Duck decide to paint the farm.  Duck paints the fence white.  Chick paints the flowers yellow.  Hen paints the barn red.  And Goose paints the roof blue.  Then they start mixing colors to get purple, orange, green, etc.  Farmer Gray returns to his bright colored farm, and then in the evening Blue Goose paints a wash of blue over everything as it turns dark. 

It was that final touch of painting twilight over the farm that took this book to another level for me.  I loved the repetition of colors for the smallest children, the mixing of colors with the new color obvious to the eye of a child, and the richness of the hues being used.  Tafuri’s skill with simple lines in a picture book is evident here.  Her illustrations burst from the pages, larger than life and with so few lines of text that the book is almost read in pictures alone. 

Highly recommended, as are most of Tafuri’s books, for toddler storytimes about colors.  Children as small as two will enjoy spending time with these barnyard friends and chatting about colors and animals.