Odd Duck

Theodora puts on her slippers one webbed foot at a time, "just like all the other ducks," but she does have a few quirks, such as swimming with a teacup and saucer on her head and dipping her Duck Food in mango salsa. In her opinion, however, her quirks are nothing compared to Chad's, the duck of a different feather who moves in next door and disrupts her happy routine life with his loudly constructed yard art and splashy swimming technique. In an appealingly hybrid design -- part graphic novel, part picture book -- playful cartoon illustrations in spring colors follow the charmingly drumstick-shaped neighbors on their path to discovering that they have more in common -- a love of stargazing, an aversion to migrating -- than they first thought. Yet when a bystander taunts, "Look at that odd duck!" as the pair walks past, which odd duck does she mean? Each assumes the other is the one who sticks out like a sore thumb. (Yes, these ducks have thumbs.) A lively friendship story that shows it's more fun to be different than "normal," and most fun of all to be different with a buddy. christine m. heppermann