Children Literature---Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey

SUMMARY
Mother, Mrs. Mallard, and father duck, Mr. Mallard were looking for a perfect place for their babies.  She was so worried about the place to raise her family where there might be foxes or turtles.  They flew to different places, but when they got to Boston, they found a nice pond in the Public Garden, with a little island on it. They fished there and followed a boat to get peanuts for breakfast.  When Mrs. Mallard was shocked by a bike that almost ran over her, they flew to other places, at last, they found an island on Charles River.  They began to hatch eight eggs.  A policeman, Michael fed them every day.  One day the ducklings hatched out and were called Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Quack, Pack and Quack.  While Mrs. Mallard taught ducklings how to swim and dive and other things, Mr. Mallard took a trip to see the rest of the river, and they agreed to meet in the Public Garden in a week.  One morning, she took the ducklings off the island to find Mr. Mallard.  When they came to the highway, they were stopped by the speeding cars.  Michael the police helped them to cross the road and even called other polices to help them across the street, right into the Public Garden.  They reunited with Mr. Mallard.  The ducklings liked the new island so the family decided to live there at last.

ANALYSIS

CHARACTERS
Protagonist---The duck family
Antagonist---the cars and bikes
Round Character--- Mrs. Mallard
Flat Character--- The policemen

SETTING
Backdrop Setting--- The place was located around Boston, in Public Garden and Charles River.

NARRATIVE POINT OF VIEW
Omniscient Narrator

PLOT
Plot Type--- Parallel Plot
1st plot: The duck couple flew to Public Garden, but found out this is not a perfect place for their little ducklings when Mrs. Mallard shocked by the bicycle.
2nd plot: They flew to Charles River and found this is a perfect place to live.
3rd: The mother duck took ducklings to find Mr. Mallard and finally they lived in Public Garden.

CONFLICT
The protagonist against Another/Self.

THEME
Parents' love to children

STYLE

Word Choice--- Easy words with the rhythm like the ducklings' names.
Sentence--- In order to describe some situations, the author used some long sentences but with some repetitions in it, made it easy to read.
Exposition--- Most of the sentences are exposition.
Dialogue--- With little part of the conversation type.

TONE
Humorous,  warm, lovely

AWARD
The Caldecott Award

REFLECTION
This is a very lovely story when I read.  The author used a very lovely way to describe the ducklings' movements like "Before you could wind an eyelash Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Quack, Pack and Quack fell into line..."  With this vivid description, we can easily understand how the ducklings moved.  Plus, the author used the sound "Qua-a-ack!" to tell when Mrs. Mallard and ducklings faced the traffics and the cars went "Honk!", they kept quacking and the cars kept speeding.  When I looked at the illustration and with the sound I made in my mind, the whole situation was just right in front of me.

Also, we can see the enthusiastic policeman, Michael, helped the duck family to cross the road. Some personification descriptions like "... Nack, Quack, Pack and Quack all marching in line behind her.", "...she was so proud she tipped her nose in the air and..." to help readers understand more and picture the image in mind easily.

This is a book that makes me feel happy to see ducks' movements and feel exciting when I reads the speeding cars part.  Also, to use the innocent way to look at animals like we all did in childhood time.


EXTERNAL LINK
The Statue of "Make Way for Ducklings"