Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Silly Dilly Duckling
Illustrator: Jane Chapman
Board Book
For ages 3 to 5
Tiger Tales, 2004 ISBN: 978-1589255784
One sunny day Dilly the duckling and her siblings go out for a “family waddle” with their mother. Dilly is lagging behind when a wayward breeze tugs on one of Dilly’s soft feathers and off the feather goes. Dilly sets off in hot pursuit, running as fast as her little orange feet will allow. The wind, being contrary, blows the feather all over the place and poor Dilly can’t keep up.
Spike the hedgehog offers to capture the feature, which he saw sailing down the hill. Spike rolls himself into a ball and off he rolls, but the feather drifts too high and Spike isn’t able to catch it on his prickles. Spike and Dilly run after the feather.
Nibble the mouse sees that the feather is caught on a corn stalk and she offers to retrieve it, but her efforts don’t work out either and the feather gets away again. Poor Dilly is quite heartbroken.
In this sweet little board book children will meet some charming little animals who try to catch a wayward feather. Readers will be amused when they discover that Dilly’s pursuit of the feather, and all the drama that it produced, wasn’t really necessary in the first place. The story explores the idea that sometimes something that seems really, really important might not be that important after all.
