Grumpy Duck

PreS-Gr 2—Duck is grumpy because the pond is dry and she has no one to play with. When she complains to several animals, they each invite her to play with them. Dog suggests they dig holes. "Digging holes would make my feathers dirty," says Duck. She refuses Pig's offer to play in his "gloopy puddle," because ducks don't like gloop. Duck would rather quack than join Rooster in a "cockadoodle chorus." She calls Rabbit silly for proposing a hopping contest, finds Tortoise's offer to doze together boring, and refuses to eat clothes with Goat. With each rejection, the small black cloud over Duck's head enlarges until it becomes so "ginormous" that now all the animals are grumpy. Not to worry, though. The gigantic cloud doesn't "block out the sun forever" but instead releases torrents of rain. The pond fills up, and the animals, happy again, join Duck as she "splish[es]" and "splosh[es]" in the downpour. Endpapers filled with large raindrops hint at what will eventually relieve Duck's gloom. The mixed-media illustrations, all gorgeous double-page bleeds, depict an elongated duck, head bent under an ever-present cloud. The detailed renderings of each animal are large, sometimes spilling onto an opposing page until each appears shrunken in gloom under a cloud-filled sky. The animals' exuberant enjoyment of the rain and the rainbow that follows is a delightful conclusion.