Hey, Duck!

Bramsen (The Yellow Tutu) introduces an enthusiastically oblivious duckling who believes the cat he meets is a duck. The concept and rhyming exchange between the characters should tickle preschoolers, who will love feeling smarter than the duckling: "Hey, duck! Why do you walk like that?/ I slink because I am a cat./ Hey, duck! Why is your tail so long?/ Oh, please don't call me duck. It's wrong." However, the cat, as aloof as Greta Garbo, wants to be alone, and sends the duckling packing. Bramsen's artwork has a fluffy, dreamy, and almost three-dimensional quality that excels at expressing the characters' shock, dismay, delight, or surprise. In a gratifying if somewhat mystifying turn, the cat has a change of heart and seeks out the duckling, telling him, "My sense of me has gone amuck!/ I'm pretty sure I am a duck./ I'm not a cat, this much I know./ For no real cat could miss you so." Despite the odd turnaround, readers will enjoy the unlikely friends' realization that, feathers or fur, it makes no difference when it comes to fun. Ages 3%E2%80%937. Agent: Marietta Zacker, Nancy Gallt Literary Agency. (Jan.)