A
couple of years ago, I was in Boston and taking a walk in the Boston Public
Garden while I came across an interesting sculpture. It featured America’s most
famous mallard family, with Mrs. Mallard leading the way and her eight little
ducklings following.
The
sculpture is inspired by a popular children’s book Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey who wrote the story and
illustrated it. The story is about a couple of ducks who look for a suitable place to raise their family, and later, the mother duck takes her family of eight across
Boston to meet their father, and they have various adventures en route (Like Shakespeare often did,
McCloskey is said to have drawn inspiration for the story from a newspaper
report he read). First published in
1941, and awarded the Caldecott medal in 1942, this beautifully illustrated
book is still in print.
It’s a remarkable book for several reasons.
In terms of plot and characterization, the narrative
presents a strong and independent mother figure who is also caring and
concerned. During the II World War, many young children in America were growing
up without a father, and the book assured them that it was alright to have a
mother in charge, and gave them hope that they would one day be reunited with
their fathers.
In terms of the illustrations, they present the reader with an amazing view of Boston from the perspective of a duck – a duck-eyed view of the city (or a very little child’s). It offers an interesting way of getting a child to learn about her surroundings, about perspective, about traffic issues and road safety, and about a host of other things. An interesting anecdote about McCloskey tells us that after spending several days watching ducks in park ponds and learning about them at the Museum of Natural History and making hundreds of sketches, he finally brought home a family of ducks, filled up his bathtub and housed them there. That is how his drawings look so lifelike and evoke such an air of authenticity.
This book is a must-read for children everywhere to get
them to reflect on their city’s landmarks, think about habitats, and ponder
over the symbiotic relationship between humans and animals.
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