Seven Little Ducklings
by Annette LeBlanc Cate; illus. by the author
Preschool    Candlewick    40 pp.
1/25    9781536235746    $18.99
e-book ed.  9781536242331    $18.99

Mother duck sits on her nest full of eggs one night, when things take a turn. The rhyming text says, “One egg hatches… /and then another… / Seven little ducklings are up before Mother!” Soft-hued ink and watercolor art captures the personalities of the mischievous little hatchlings, who decide to spend their first hours exploring unchaperoned. When Mama wakes to a nest of empty shells, panic ensues. She sets off to round up her new brood, launching this lively counting story into action. Every baby she finds has landed in a more amusingly precarious position than the one before it. Readers counting along will recognize early that she has accumulated more than she started with and that one of those babies is clearly a turtle and another likely a swan. While Mama mulls over this conundrum—they all seem like family to her—a struggling mouse floats by and she rescues it too, along with a few more ducklings. Mama observes, “They can’t all be mine,” but “then she looks at their faces / and knows that it’s fine.” The sunny palette, singsong rhymes, and ragtag collection of funny, wide-eyed creatures keep this family story engaging and surprising all the way to the bedtime end—as one last headcount reveals.

From the ">January/February 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.