One Duck Stuck: A Mucky Ducky Counting Book

"Splish, clomp, pleep, plop, plunk, sloosh, slosh, slink, zing." Who can resist a read-aloud featuring sounds like these? When, "Down by the marsh, by the sleepy, slimy marsh, one duck gets stuck in the muck," who comes to the rescue? Two fish, splishing, for starters. Then three moose clomping, four crickets pleeping, and so on. Still, "No luck. Still stuck." It takes a whole lot of teamwork to get this particular stuck duck unstuck from the muck, but this cheerful bunch is definitely up to the task.

From one duck to 10 dragonflies, the muddy fun never stops in Phyllis Root's chunky little board book. Young readers will giggle their way through the numbers, and by the time the duck's foot is released with a "Spluck!" counting will be a cinch. Jane Chapman's lush illustrations are full of marshy colors and muddy detail. The right side of each two-page spread shows the hapless duck earnestly waiting for liberation by its lively rescuers, while on the opposite side the featured number is printed, large and bold, over the text, and the splishers and ploppers are depicted again for easy counting. Chapman's enchanting art is also found in The Emperor's Egg, among other titles, and Root's other popular stories include Kiss the Cow!. (Baby to preschool) --Emilie Coulter