By Meg McKinlay and Illustrated by Leila Rudge
Duck for a Day is about a young girl named Abby and her attempts to bring home the class pet for a day. She goes into her classroom the first day of school into Mrs. Melvino's classroom to find a covered crate. Lo and behold, in that crate was a duck, named Max, that would be the class pet. Abby is willing to do anything to bring home Max, because her mother is a neat freak and will not allow Abby to have any pets, but a class pet is "okay" because it is only for a day. However, Mrs. Melvino holds very high expectations for Max's day home, and requests portfolios complete with pictures before she is willing to let Max go to their home. Abby competes against her next door neighbor, Noah, to bring Max home first. They are enemies and polar opposites from the start, mainly because Abby's house is tidy, and Noah's house is pure chaos. Eventually, Abby gets to take Max home for a day and Noah is jealous. However, when Abby wakes up in the morning, Max has escaped. With Noah's help, she is able to retrieve Max safely and gain Noah's friendship.
This book is about friendship and it would be a great way to encourage kids to give "enemies" a chance. It can also give children the determination to strive for their goals; even if they are shot down a couple times does not mean that they cannot continue on and reach their goals, such as Abby and Noah did. Ultimately, I think this would be a great read aloud over a couple days (it's a chapter book) and kids would be able to relate to it on more than one level.
This would be a great read aloud book for 3rd graders since they really start to make friend groups around this age. It's also good because it's a boy and girl relationship so all of the students can relate. It's a little stereotypical that the girl's family is tidy, and the boy's is chaotic. It have been nice if those would have been broken. But it does seem like a great book to read and discuss with your students.
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ReplyDeleteThis book seems like a creative way to express friendship. Until you mentioned it I thought this was a type of picture, easy read book. I think this would be a great book for mid-elementary, around 3rd-5th grade. Children this age begin to collide and create groups. This book would be an excellent lesson for them to relate to and learn from. Did it have any illustrations?
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