Dimity Duck

by Jane Yolen, Sebastian Braun (Illustrator)

Dimity Duck and Frumity Frog have a fun day together playing seek-and-hide in the pond, but when she tires and it gets dark outside, Dimity Duck heads home for bed.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Storytime, Animals, Friendship, Birds, Adventure

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Jane Yolen is a novelist, poet, fantasist, journalist, songwriter, storyteller, folklorist, and children’s book author who has written more than three hundred books. Her accolades include the Caldecott Medal, two Nebula Awards, the World Fantasy Award, three Mythopoeic Awards, the Kerlan Award, two Christopher Awards, and six honorary doctorate degrees from colleges and universities in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Born and raised in New York City, the mother of three and the grandmother of six, Yolen lives in Massachusetts and St. Andrews, Scotland.

Reviews

[Eva-Marie Nevarez · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 - Well. The ducks cute. But the story is not. Actually, let me fix that up a bit. If your kid likes "words" like 'niddy-noddy' and 'sleepy-sloppy', names like 'Frumity Frog', they may like this. Mine, uh, doesn't.
Don't get me wrong, she's a kid, we have our own special words and all but jeez, "niddy-noddy"? What is that? I'm a little ticked that Yolen did this to such a cute duck.
This is a perfect - absolutely perfect - example of how 'hit-or-miss' Jane Yolen is.

[Lexi S · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve probably read this book 1,000 times. Some people think this is a basic children’s story. It’s actually a book that signifies the struggles and challenges we all deal with in life. This is a book about perseverance, overcoming obstacles, and having fun along the way. The story centers around a duck named dimity and her friend frimity. This book is deep and emotional you can really feel dimity’s struggle to find frimity. Spoiler alert: the high point of the book is when frimity yells suprise and literally scares the crap out dimity. But that’s life…

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of our very favorite books for young children. The words have a clever and regular rhythm and rhyme to them as they go through the duck's day from waking to sleep. The pictures have vibrant color and a lot of character and charm. The text layout is very thoughtfully designed to match the words, so when it's talking about how she waddled and toddled, the text is a little off-kilter, and on a page about the duck diving to find food underwater, the text moves in a smooth downward arc, mirroring the duck's movements. Both of my kids loved saying, "Surprise!" at the appropriate part in the hide-and-seek game between Dimity and her friend the frog.

[Jack Kirby and the X-man · Rating 3 out of 5]

While Jane Yolen has a long history of writing what must be quite good books (with a Caldecott winner and honour book under her belt), even the best author can put out a middling book.

This book has many of the right elements - rhythm, rhyme, onomatopoeia, cute illustrations... But somehow the combination of all these good parts doesn't seem to produce an amazing book.

[Marcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read it every night with Patricia. It is by far our favorite. We can both recite it by memory but we still love to turn the pages and find out what Dimity will do next. Here's to good toddler reading!

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

This almost twee story is similar in structure and design to Hoptoad, but longer, as it tells of a duckling's entire day. On one level, it is adorable, but on another, I'm disturbed by this little yellow fuzzball having no mama around. I do like the patterns of the words & the font and I believe it could be used as a slightly more advanced leveled reader, but I don't find it as likely to be as appealing to as wide an audience as Hoptoad is. On the third hand, if an educator happens to love it, it could be used as a mentor text.

[Lara Bate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dimity Duck is a story about a duck named Dimity. It describes how a day looks like for Dimity where she gets up in the morning, gets ready for the day, and then waddles to the blue pond. She eats fish and weeds for breakfast then meets up with Frumity Frog. They play seek-and-hide but Dimity can't find Frumity and gets sad. Frumity appears and surprises her. She then laughs and plays some more before waddling back home and going to sleep.

[Alyssa · Rating 3 out of 5]

So sweet! Has some fantastic vocabulary, and some silly rhyming and made up words that are perfect for building early literacy skills. Doesn't have as much interaction as I would like for storytime, but I may try it anyway.

[Kimberly]

1-2 sentences per page. A lot of white space. A story about a little duck and what she does throughout her day - getting ready for the day, eating, playing with friends, and then getting ready for sleep.

[Casandria · Rating 3 out of 5]

duck
spring

[BiblioBeruthiel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent rhyme scheme for kids, but overall just not my kind of picture book.

[Kelly]

Cute duck story for toddler storytime.

[Alana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute story of friendship....although I found it amusing that she's running around in just her feathers and a bowtie all day, but needs to put on a nightgown at home in bed?

[Vex Guthrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the aesthetic of this book so beautiful I wish my day was like Dimitar duck everyday

[Erin Buhr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being a longtime fan of Jane Yolen, I was surprised to discover this previously unknown book on a recent hunt for duck related reads. It is the tender and playful story of a day in the life of Dimity Duck. After prepping for the day, she waddles to the pond to spend the day with her friend Frumity Frog. Together they spend the day waddling, splashing, and playing together in a pond. Sebastien Braun's depicting of Dimity Duck is undeniably darling, which helps to draw the reader into her little life. Full of rhythmic language, consonant pairs, and fun rhymes, Yolen's language dances on the tongue. It is a great read aloud, as well as an excellent lesson in rhyming words.

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book itself was decent. Nothing I hated about it but nothing I loved either. It was a cute story - good rhyming. But sometimes sentences were reworded to make it rhyme which made it awkward, like "Seek-and-hide"...seriously, everyone calls it hide-and-seek. You can't seek someone who hasn't hid! It was a cute book about friends though, and I like when books end with bedtime since we generally read books at bedtime. The names of the duck and frog were strange though. Not really sure how the author came up with them... though her bio page says she lives in Scottland...so maybe that's it..

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 2 1/2 y/o son loves this one and we read it at least once a day (until it has to go back to the library). I will probably put it on my Amazon wish list, though, because it really is great. The rhyme is fun, kind of a tongue twister, though, and the illustrations are adorable. It goes through Dimity's day, which includes playing with her friend, Frumity Frog. Dimity is a fun-loving little duck, who I'm sure many kids would like.

[Desiree Kulewsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book even though it was very simple. The words were silly, discriptive and also changed font and boldness. This made it match what was happening in the story. I like some of the repeating sentences. It would make it catchy for the children to read along to. The pictures were also great. Very colorful and fun.

[Peacegal · Rating 2 out of 5]

The text is a little more involved than most board books, but that doesn’t necessarily make it anything special. After the saccharine PeedieI’m starting to think I just don’t like cartoon ducklings.

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cute drawings illustrating Dimity Duck's day, from getting up to going to bed, and the words have a pleasing rhythm.

The 2yo loves it (hence the 4 stars) but doesn't seem to interact as much as with other books, and the text is hard to explain.

[Julie]

If you have kids, you must have this book. LOVE IT! We read it every night.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love reading this book to my kids. What a cute duck!

[Willow · Rating 5 out of 5]

A favorite from long ago 💕

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully illustrated and written book , pictures well drawn , lovely story - a Fourier in our house

[Ecl Storytellers]

This rhymes and theres great onomatopoeia!

[Bree · Rating 2 out of 5]

Notes:
the art is great, the story is not
too simple and too much baby-talk going on

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really cute art style, but I can't pronounce Dimity and the story was a bit scatter brained

[Tracy Schillemore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute rhyming. A bit long. The characters are adorable.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not much to the story, but great rhyming and word play for a toddler to hear. I picked it off the shelf because it had the name of my old street, but the illustrations also caught my eye.

[Naomi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute. The elements of a good kid's book are there, but I still found it to be pretty mediocre. The illustrations are what I feel will draw kids' attentions.