Author/Illustrator Website: www.emilygravett.com
Medium: pencil and watercolor
Awards and Honors: none
Audience:4 and up
Annotation:
All of the birds have laid eggs- everyone except Duck. When he finds a large speckled egg, he adopts it as his own and waits patiently for it to hatch.
Personal Reaction:
All of the birds have laid eggs- everyone except Duck (which is not too surprising, really, given the fact that Duck is a male mallard). When Duck finds a large speckled egg, he adopts it as his own and waits patiently for it to hatch. The other birds think he's silly, of course.
Soon the eggs begin to hatch in a spectacular sequence illustrated by a series of graduated "lift-the-flap" pages. The babies all pop out from their eggs, each one more impressive than the one before it. All of the eggs break open besides Duck's, but he's not phased. Instead he begins to knit a scarf and a set of mittens while he waits for his egg to hatch.
And hatch it does, unleashing a rather feisty baby alligator who sends the other birds flapping. Children will no doubt guess the "surprise" ending before it comes, but it won't detract from the story. A final, adorable illustration shows the alligator in its scarf and mittens following attentively behind Duck and cooing, "Mama".
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