“Inspired by a 2003 newspaper story about a shipment of yellow rubber ducks that fell overboard from a container ship, this winsome story pairs Carle’s (Mister Seahorse) characteristically jewel-toned collage art with a breezy text whose intermittent repetition lends it a song-like cadence. Audiences of one or many will enjoy it, especially if they get to press the duck and make him squeak. While not Carle’s best work, it still has those saturated colors that have such appeal. He offers his take on the 1992 news story that inspired Eve Bunting and David Wisniewski to create Ducky (1997). All of his well-known components are present: a list of animals-many of them recognizable from earlier works-repeated words and phrases, bright friendly art on lots of white background, and a noisemaker at the end. Laura Ingalls Wilder Award-recipient and perennial favorite Carle revisits the counting-book format with his unmistakable blocky, painted collages. The tenth rubber toy runs into a family of wild ducks and they all nestle down under a friendly moon. One encounters a dolphin, another meets up with a seal, and so on. A storm blows up on their trip across the ocean, spills them out, and they drift in different directions.

“Ten rubber ducks are packed in a box and tied to a boat. More accessible to younger readers than Eve Bunting’s Ducky (Clarion, 1997), this book makes a wonderful read-aloud for storytimes or one-on-one sharing. The ordinal numbers are shown in bold type that stands out from the narrative. The ducks all bid “Good night” to one another with a “Quack,” while the newcomer says “Squeak!” (Children can press the page to hear a squeak.) Carle’s signature cut-paper collages burst with color, texture, light, and motion, delighting the eye and bringing out the text’s nuances. The 10th one meets a mother duck with her offspring and bobs along with them to their nest. Each one floats in a different direction-west, east, north, south, left, right, up, down, this way, and that way, – and encounters a different animal (a dolphin, seal, polar bear, etc.).

During a storm, 10 rubber ducks fall into the sea. The toys are then loaded onto a freighter destined for faraway countries. The story opens at a factory where assembly-line workers are painting details onto bright yellow rubber ducks. STARRED REVIEW *“Carle takes an actual incident, when numerous bathtub toys fell off a container ship and floated to various places, and distills it to create a marvelous counting/concept adventure. Inspired by the true story of these ducks at sea, Eric Carle has imagined their voyage in the wide open waters and the creatures they meet who live in and around the ocean. 10 Little Rubber Ducks fall overboard and land on shores all around the world.

10 little rubber ducks