Age 1-4

This picturebook was inspired by an article about a consignment of 29,000 rubber toys, including ducks, that fell overboard from a container ship in 1992. Some of the toys washed up in Alaska, others passed the icebergs of the Bering Strait to find their way into the Atlantic. Carle was moved to write about 10 rubber ducks, swept from a ship in a gale, that drift in all directions. Made of Carle’s characteristic bold collage, cut from textured scraps of scraped and scubbled paint, this bright and delightful story typically crams in lots to learn: the numbers 1 to 10, the points of a compass, the creatures of the seas and shores, and how rubber ducks are made and transported. But this isn’t just a book of facts. It is the story of an adventure, in which we distinguish and identify with one of the 10 ducks, who does not find a sea creature, but meets real ducklings. It makes unusually poetic use of repetition in a way that adds to the meaning: “As far as one can see — only water and sky, water and sky.” It shows seas of different colours, suggesting different weather, has a touching ending and, as a bonus, a button at the end that makes a gentle, rubber-duck squeak.

(Collins £12.99)

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