Chibi CL

Brenner and Takaya make a bold move, opening this volume with a well-known scenario: a mother duck flies through the air, surveying the ground below for a spot to build a nest. Here and in several subsequent spots, including scenes in which the matriarch and her brood march in single file along a sidewalk and waddle across a busy street with the help of a policeman, the narrative and Otani's passable watercolor-and-ink illustrations closely echo Robert McCloskey's classic Make Way for Ducklings. Yet this more expansive tale, told in two chapters, has its setting in Tokyo. There the duck and her offspring, especially the diminutive Chibi, become media darlings. Their story, a true one, takes a dramatic turn when floods cause the death of one duckling and Chibi is lost, eventually reappearing ""balanced like a surfer on a piece of Styrofoam."" Smoothly integrating Japanese vocabulary into their account, the authors offer a welcome glimpse of bustling contemporary Tokyo. Ages 5-9. (Feb.)