Quackenstein Hatches a Family

K-Gr 2—Quack the duck is grumpy. All the other animals in the zoo have someone to love and snuggle with, but Quack is alone. It doesn't seem to occur to him that the signs on his shack, "KEEP OUT ALL!! JUST LEAVE ME BE!" might account in part for his solitary status. One day he comes upon a basket of eggs with a sign that reads,"ORPHANED EGGS/HOMES NEEDED" and he decides to adopt one. He eagerly awaits its hatching, but when it does, he is horrified. What emerges is not the fuzzy duckling he had hoped for, but a red-eyed, sharp-clawed "monster." Quack runs away in terror, the "monster" in hot pursuit. Eventually it corners Quack in a cave and he fears the worst. When the monster says, "Hello, Dad," Quack's heart melts, and he and his son—a platypus—walk off, wing in paw. The idea that prospective adoptive parents would not only abandon, but would also be horrified when the child is not what they expect, or has a birth defect, creates a potentially hurtful scenario. The acrylic illustrations with touches of Photoshop feature murky blues and purples and are not likely to have a great deal of child appeal. Keiko Kaza's A Mother for Choco (Putnam, 1992) is an excellent antidote for the message this book sends.—Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ