Scrawny, the Classroom Duck

by Susan Clymer

John, a third grader new to his school, becomes attached to a duck raised from birth by his class, and though the duck is eventually freed to live in the wild, John realizes he has been left a legacy of new friends made through the duck

Genres: Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Childrens

92 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1991

Reviews

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

so cute!!

[Twyla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scrawny is a duck in the classroom that gets lost all the time and gets into lots of trouble. I liked that scrawny was the only duck. - Auryn (7 years old)

[Ruth Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

John’s 3rd grade class has an incubator and is trying to hatch duck eggs. One survives and imprints on John. The class keeps the duck as a classroom pet for the rest of the year. After many scrapes and one big incident, John takes Scrawny the duck to his house to live.
Kids will enjoy learning about ducks, learning new vocabulary (egg tooth, imprint, drake, etc.) and laughing at all the antics of Scrawny. There is also a great friendship theme.

“Mom always said that asking good questions was a sign of intelligence. But Dad said that thinking up solutions was more important.”

I did find it concerning that at one point in the story John is home alone in the summer and bakes cookies by himself - pretty young to be alone for a whole day.

[Ephraim Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

David (6yo): The book is about a duck named Scrawny. There was a scary part when the neighbor dog took a bite out of the duck and they weren’t sure if he was going to live.


Words I learned: Imprint

[Susie McLaughlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pretty sweet book with a nice message.

[Celeste · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute story for children beginning to read chapter books. It teaches about responsibility in a delightful, smile evoking manner.

[Tropes_and_Taboo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read with my 5 year old, we both enjoyed this one!

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

AR ?

[Vee41dmb]

Cute book. I read and had the kids read this book in the morning before gym. We got about half way through. With only a few days left of school and the kids being worked up due to that I decided to switch it up to some other more active activities.
I had picked this book, because we had a wild mother duck lay her eggs in our court yard, as well as 3 classrooms that hatched ducks in their rooms.