Five Little Ducks

by Ivan Bates (Illustrator), Mary Gruetzke (Editor)

A favorite children's song brought to life with irresistible illustrations!

Mother duck and her five fuzzy little ducklings venture out for a long walk one lovely spring day. One by one each plump little duckling wanders off in search of a very special present. When all have disappeared, lonely mother duck lets out a very sad quack and all her ducklings come waddling back! Each proudly carries a wonderful and thoughtful surprise for loving mother duck--a beautiful flower, a lucky four-leaf clover, a gorgeous seashell, a juicy berry, and a delicious worm!

Genres: Picture Books, Storytime, Animals, Childrens, Mathematics, Fiction, Poetry

32 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2006

About the author

Ivan Bates studied illustration at Manchester Polytechnic and has illustrated many books for children, including Just You and Me by Sam McBratney, Do Like A Duck Does! by Judy Hindley, and Five Little Ducks. He lives in England.

Reviews

[IvyInThePages · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating: 5 leaves out of 5
Characters: 5/5
Cover: 5/5
Story: 5/5
Writing: 5/5
Genre: Children/Picture Book
Type: Book
Worth?: Yeah

[Joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

One by one, five little ducks wander away from their mother, leaving Mother Duck very sad. It is her sad quacking that brings all the wandering ducklings wandering back to her.

This children’s book is an appealingly illustrated retelling of the song “Five Little Ducks” and the tune is included in the book. Young children will be delighted to see one of their favorite little songs come to life in the pages of this book.

Highly recommended.

[Jasmine Stocker · Rating 4 out of 5]

VERY CUTE! I love this story about the five little ducks that went waddling away and there is one less every time the mother calls for them. Then, in the end, the mother cried quack, quack quack, and all the ducks come back to her. Super cute and would be a great read aloud. After reading it once, one could sing the song with the students.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is exactly what you would expect - the classic nursery rhyme. The illustrations are clear and approachable for young children, and they add a bit to the story of the rhyme - what did the ducklings do while they were missing? What did they each bring back. I enjoyed reading and singing this with 2 year olds and their caregivers, and they joined in on the "quack, quack, quack".

[Ang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Summary: This unique and beautiful adaptation of a favorite children's song tells a story of appreciation and love between parent and children. Complete with musical notation, this book will engage young readers and get them counting, singing, and asking for it again and again! -- inside left jacket flap

[Savannah Domeyer]

This is a poetry book is about five ducklings who went out and when they came back one was lost. It kept happening when one doesn't come back until there were no more ducklings. Then, the mother went out and found all of her ducklings.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Five Little Ducks by Ivan Bates – This is a picture book based on a children’s song. Listening to the song as an adult raised questions that didn’t occur to me as a kid which is always an interesting sensation. Happy Reading!

[Mely · Rating 5 out of 5]

a cute illustrated book of a classic song.

[Summer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cute book. I like these illustrations!

[Syntha Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet illustrations of the traditional song

[Riley Pearson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very cute and beautifully illustrated!

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Any version of this story is good but I like this one the best! It has the music in the back if you want to sing it to your little readers. Found in L4L Vol. 72.

[Kimberly]

1-2 sentences per page. Big illustrations. Softer look and lighter colors. Pretty details in how the ducks bring back items to Mother Duck.

[Kimberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very cute hard cover book. Glad it has the music 🎶.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2. Cute illustrations for this classic song.

[Samantha]

quack-duck storytime

[Adyl · Rating 5 out of 5]

its good but since its supposed to be a nursery rhyme it feels weird reading it without actually singing it

the mother duck loses all her ducklings but since shes a duck, i dont know if she has feelings or no but i think shes sad because her ducklings are lost

when the mother duck quacks and all the ducklings came back because it wouldnt be a happy ending when her all her ducklings wouldnt return

i i feel good after reading it because it reminds me of my childhood and also when i use this nursery rhyme to calm down my litte brother when he was crying

the summary of the book is about 5 ducklings and a mother duck. the ducklings went out one day, over the hills and far away. when the mother ducK quacks, only 4 ducklings came back. and so on until no ducklings came back, so the mother duck was worried and quacked once more and all the ducks came back

[Lindsey Richard]

Very cute and easy poetry book for young students to read. This book could be used as an easy-to-read, while also helping students begin to read poetry and get their rhythm down. Pictures are also adorable, along with the story line.

[Jane Njoroge · Rating 5 out of 5]

FIVE LITTLE DUCKS BY IVAN BATES
The book is fun,age appropriate and entertaining. The book has good vocabulary and a lot of repetition.The book keeps children involved and want to know what happened to the little ducks.
Mother duck and her five fuzzy little ducklings venture out for a long walk one lovely spring day. One by one each plump little duckling wanders off in search of a very special present. When all have disappeared, lonely mother duck lets out a very sad quack and all her ducklings come waddling back! Each proudly carries a wonderful and thoughtful surprise for loving mother duck.

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Illustrated version of the children's song. No dad at the end, though, yelling for the kids to come back. I was about to be annoyed by what I perceived as the removal of a father figure that was too 1950's for the author (to which I say, give me a break), but the end is actually very sweet. (All the ducklings are out getting gifts for Mama Duck.)
I should probably stop jumping to conclusions.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

21 Months - We've been singing and signing this story for over a year so it's a favorite. I like the addition of the images of the ducklings and their distractions and then when they return they come with gifts for Momma. Cute, and something new for us to talk about. Fun book and cute illustrations.

[Brianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is all about the illustrations. The wonderful drawings depict adorable ducklings wandering pretty countryside and meeting cute animal friends, but there's hardly any story. The book has sheet music for the song on which it was based in the back, so a creative reader could have a lot of fun singing or playing the story.

[Mari · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love to sing this song in storytime, and the illustrations are expressive and fun. My only problem is that the wording of the song is just a little different from the way I learned it. Often, I use the book and sing it my own way, but sometimes, I try and get myself to sing it as written.

[Eva · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite version of this story. The little ducklings are very cute and kind as they each get caught up gathering a gift which they all return at the end to give to their sad mother duck. It's a lovely example of kids doing something kind for their mother.

[Shelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a great song. This book has great illustations to go with it.

[Christen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cute, but nothing we haven't seen before.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This does use the original Raffi song, and has the music on the last page.

[Paula · Rating 3 out of 5]

One by one, five little ducks wander away from their mother until her lonely quack brings them all waddling back.

[Michelle Farella · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked seeing where the little ducks waddled off to

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think this story book is for very little children, because there are big pictures on the page but just few words to read. The pictures inside are easy to understand, even the same for little kids.