Duck lives in the dessert and all his dessert friends come to his house to celebrate his birthday, bringing all sorts of fun gifts. The only problem is that they are all related to swimming and playing in the water and, of course, there's not much water in the dessert. It's not until the always-late Tortoise finally shows up that Duck can unwrap the final and most important present, an inflatable pool, and he and his friends use all his gifts to have a great pool party. The children enjoyed seeing the illustrations of dessert plants and animals, making guesses about what Tortoise's present would be, and singing along with Duck's birthday song: "Happy Birthday, dear Duck, Happy Birthday to You!"
This book was given to Paul when he was a few years old by our good friends in Colorado, and has always been a favorite.
For the three-year-olds, I read Janet S. Wong's Buzz, which follows a little boy through his morning as he hears various things making buzzing noises, from Mommy and Daddy's alarm clock to a lawn mower cutting grass.
The text is simple enough for little kids to understand, but interesting enough for adults to appreciate:
"And Mommy runs to catch my cup and the apple juice spills and her toast pops up and the clothes go tumbling round and round until- Buzzzzz She runs to the dryer and drops clothes on the floor and hops on one leg to put her right sock on and hops on her other leg to put her left sock on and blows her hair dry Buzzzz until it stands straight up."
If that wasn't enough, the Margot Chodos-Irvine's illustrations are to die for and added such beauty and serenity to a bleak winter's day.
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