The children’s book market has certainly changed from the days of Golden Books, Choose Your Own Adventure, and Judy Blume. Nowadays, there are books by celebrities and a whole slew of books that look like the same water color artist illustrated them.
Swim, Duck, Swim
BUT NOW there’s a new and different kind of book for kids. This book follows the current formula of teaching a behavior, a principle or bringing a common problem with children to the forefront and presenting a solution; SWIM DUCK SWIM. I was going to attempt to describe this beautifully photographed book but I found the KIRKUS REVIEW and that overview really sums up the story and photos perfectly. Here it is:
“Standing in for any reluctant preschooler faced with a new experience, a duckling goes through stages of irritation at parental urging and then nervousness before finally taking a first plunge.
Duckling has no trouble with self-expression: “I told you once. I told you twice. / I don’t like to get wet.” His feelings are reflected with astonishing veracity in Head’s (Frisky Brisky Hippety Hop, 2012) sunlit, close-up color photos. Taken in New York City’s Central Park, the full-bleed pond-side scenes mostly feature a pair of adult mallards attending to a fuzzy hatchling who really looks angry, stubborn, pensive, apprehensive and, at last, gleeful thanks to an artful eye and clever angles of view. Lurie’s rhymed monologue reads with a natural rather than singsong cadence and is set out on each spread in a few lines or partial lines that match the accompanying picture wonderfully well. “I’m in the pond! Look at me! / Hooray! I’m not afraid!”
I said “NO”
A childhood triumph portrayed just right. Both the archetypal challenge and the creative collaboration go swimmingly. (Picture book. 3-5)”.
Murray Head and Hans Christian Anderson
Recently, the photographer, Murray Head was invited to the annual Ugly Duckling’s Birthday Party which is held in Central Park at the Hans Christian Anderson statue. There was story-telling by Rolf Stang and Robin Brady and goodies supplied by the American Scandinavian Society.
The book is available through Amazon.com. Susan Lurie wrote the story and Murray Head did the photography.
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Is that your Murray?
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