Tuesday Tales: Super Duck by Jez Alborough

You may be familiar with Jez Alborough’s duck series. His first book, which has also been set to music and played in preschools across the country, was Duck in the Truck. I can hear the song in my head now about how the truck gets stuck in the muck–and I will probably be singing it the rest of the night. Here’s the latest duck book, Super Duck, and Duck’s friends Frog, Goat, and Sheep are back, too.

*Picture book for preschoolers through 2nd graders
*Duck as main character
*Rating: Super Duck is super cute and another great read aloud for young children!

Short, short summary: Goat has made a kite. Sheep and Frog are trying to help him fly it. Super Duck comes to the rescue when no one can throw it super high. Thus begins the story of the four friends trying to get this kite to fly. Duck uses his “super powers”-along with advice from Sheep, Goat, and Frog-to fly the kite. But nothing seems to get it to work for very long. Then all of sudden, Frog grabs on and whoosh! There goes the kite with Frog attached. Will Super Duck be able to save his friend? Will there be any muck in this book? A cute book about friendship!

So, what do I do with this book?

1. Rhyming words are a great concept to study with these duck books, and Super Duck offers many examples. After reading the book once to your children or students (so they can enjoy the story), ask them to listen for rhyming words and raise their hands or give you a thumbs-up when they hear a pair of rhyming words. When you are finished reading the second time, make a class list of rhyming words from Jez Alborough’s book.

2. This is also a great book to teach problems and solutions. In Super Duck, the animal friends have a lot of trouble getting the kite to fly. Super Duck offers some solutions, and so does Goat. Ask students to identify the problems in the story and how the friends solve them.

3. Can your students or children write a group story about Duck, Goat, Sheep, and Frog? Come up with a problem with the class, write a story together, and divide up different sections for students to illustrate the story.

Have you read one of Jez Alborough’s Duck books with your class or your children? Which is your favorite? Why do your children or students like him?