Duck

A child, Tim, learns to name his surroundings in this collaboration. At first, he calls all animals ``duck,'' and Granny corrects him in vain. Finally she shows him a duck, and Tim echoes her words. Next, having heard Tim refer to a tractor, a bus and a car as ``trucks,'' Granny points out an actual truck. Tim obediently repeats that name, too. For some time after this, Tim is silent: he looks at his playthings but does not attempt to name them. By the time Granny takes him back to the pond he is able to name the duck with no prompting. Voake's soft pastel illustrations fit Lloyd's story in tone and approach: both are friendly and immediately engaging. Most readers will relish the chance to correct Tim's misnomers and display their own knowledge. But the book's subtle denouementTim's period of silence and his subsequent, correct identification of a duckis perhaps overly abstract. The implication that Tim has gained understanding through silent contemplation may be beyond the grasp of many of those who have only just begun to identify objects in the world around them. Ages 1-5. (June)