Waiting in the Wings

Per a creators’ note, nesting ducks at a Long Island community theater inspired Andrews and Walton Hamilton’s latest high-spirited collaboration. Looking for a safe place to lay eggs, Mr. and Mrs. Puddleduck “waddled and toddled... pottered and padded” around town before settling into flower box outside a lively theater. While Mrs. P protects the nest, Mr. P ventures into the building, watching feather-fan-waving performers whose “spellbinding story, with sensational songs and dazzling dances” inspires his enthusiastic, and noticeable, response. But when the hatched ducklings’ arrival upstages Mr. P’s dramatics, performers and Puddleducks alike must herd the hatchlings safely to the water in a “fabulous, feathered finale.” Alliterative prose and over-the-top humor render a lively farce, while Keller’s texture-rich digital artwork presents spindly human figures of various skin tones with expressions and body language that elevate the story’s high-kicking energy. Ages 4–8. (Apr.)