Duck, Apple, Egg

Duck, Apple, Egg by Glenda Millard, Martina Heiduczek (ABC Books) HB RRP 9780733340185

Reviewed by Dianne Bates

Here is a new picture book for the very young from multi-award-winning author Glenda Millard who is known for her Tiskin Silk book series beautifully illustrated here by Martina Heiduczek who also illustrated the covers of the Silk books.

Duck, Apple, Egg has a minimum, poetic text which begins “Duck on the green, sun in the sky, egg in the nest,’ and moves on to the next page to ‘apple on the tree, and me.’

Basically, the book is a simple story about the joys of playing in a garden with a small child dressed in red and blue who observes (and embraces) nature about him. Thus, you see the child hugging the duck, finding a nest, eating an apple, splashing with duck in a pond, and, in the final illustration, eating an apple pie and laying with the duck.

The words ‘duck’, egg’ and ‘apple’ are repeated throughout the book so they could be easily memorised by a small child being read the story by a parent or teacher.

The illustrations are lush with lots of grass and wonderful fly pages in pale blue featuring duck, eggs, apples and flowers.