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I Wish That I Had Duck Feet
What would life be like if you had feet like a duck, or horns like a deer, a whale spout on your head, or a long, long nose? In this crazy tale a small boy imagines all these things, only to decide in the end that perhaps it's better to be "ME" after all. With his unique combination of hilarious stories, zany pictures and riotous rhymes, Dr. Seuss has been delighting young children and helping them learn to read for over fifty years. Creator of the wonderfully anarchic Cat in the Hat, and ranking among the UK's top ten favourite children's authors, Seuss is firmly established as a global best-seller, with nearly half a million books sold worldwide. This delightful book forms part of the third stage in HarperCollins' major Dr. Seuss rebrand programme. With the relaunch of six more titles in January 2004, such all-time favourites as The Lorax, The Foot Book and Yertle the Turtle boast bright new covers that incorporate much needed guidance on reading Blue Back Books are for parents to share with young children, Green Back Books are for budding readers to tackle on their own, and Yellow Back Books are for older, more fluent readers to enjoy. I Wish That I Had Duck Feet belongs to the Green Back Book range.
64 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1965
69 people are currently reading
5542 people want to read
About the author
Dr. Seuss
972 books18.3k followersAlso wrote as Theodore Seuss Geisel, see https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Theodor Seuss Geisel was born 2 March 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts. He graduated Dartmouth College in 1925, and proceeded on to Oxford University with the intent of acquiring a doctorate in literature. At Oxford he met Helen Palmer, who he wed in 1927. He returned from Europe in 1927, and began working for a magazine called Judge, the leading humor magazine in America at the time, submitting both cartoons and humorous articles for them. Additionally, he was submitting cartoons to Life, Vanity Fair and Liberty. In some of his works, he'd made reference to an insecticide called Flit. These references gained notice, and led to a contract to draw comic ads for Flit. This association lasted 17 years, gained him national exposure, and coined the catchphrase "Quick, Henry, the Flit!"
In 1936 on the way to a vacation in Europe, listening to the rhythm of the ship's engines, he came up with And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, which was then promptly rejected by the first 43 publishers he showed it to. Eventually in 1937 a friend published the book for him, and it went on to at least moderate success.
During World War II, Geisel joined the army and was sent to Hollywood. Captain Geisel would write for Frank Capra's Signal Corps Unit (for which he won the Legion of Merit) and do documentaries (he won Oscar's for Hitler Lives and Design for Death). He also created a cartoon called Gerald McBoing-Boing which also won him an Oscar.
In May of 1954, Life published a report concerning illiteracy among school children. The report said, among other things, that children were having trouble to read because their books were boring. This inspired Geisel's publisher, and prompted him to send Geisel a list of 400 words he felt were important, asked him to cut the list to 250 words (the publishers idea of how many words at one time a first grader could absorb), and write a book. Nine months later, Geisel, using 220 of the words given to him published The Cat in the Hat , which went on to instant success.
In 1960 Bennett Cerf bet Geisel $50 that he couldn't write an entire book using only fifty words. The result was Green Eggs and Ham . Cerf never paid the $50 from the bet.
Helen Palmer Geisel died in 1967. Theodor Geisel married Audrey Stone Diamond in 1968. Theodor Seuss Geisel died 24 September 1991.
Also worked under the pen name: Theo Le Sieg
Theodor Seuss Geisel was born 2 March 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts. He graduated Dartmouth College in 1925, and proceeded on to Oxford University with the intent of acquiring a doctorate in literature. At Oxford he met Helen Palmer, who he wed in 1927. He returned from Europe in 1927, and began working for a magazine called Judge, the leading humor magazine in America at the time, submitting both cartoons and humorous articles for them. Additionally, he was submitting cartoons to Life, Vanity Fair and Liberty. In some of his works, he'd made reference to an insecticide called Flit. These references gained notice, and led to a contract to draw comic ads for Flit. This association lasted 17 years, gained him national exposure, and coined the catchphrase "Quick, Henry, the Flit!"
In 1936 on the way to a vacation in Europe, listening to the rhythm of the ship's engines, he came up with And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, which was then promptly rejected by the first 43 publishers he showed it to. Eventually in 1937 a friend published the book for him, and it went on to at least moderate success.
During World War II, Geisel joined the army and was sent to Hollywood. Captain Geisel would write for Frank Capra's Signal Corps Unit (for which he won the Legion of Merit) and do documentaries (he won Oscar's for Hitler Lives and Design for Death). He also created a cartoon called Gerald McBoing-Boing which also won him an Oscar.
In May of 1954, Life published a report concerning illiteracy among school children. The report said, among other things, that children were having trouble to read because their books were boring. This inspired Geisel's publisher, and prompted him to send Geisel a list of 400 words he felt were important, asked him to cut the list to 250 words (the publishers idea of how many words at one time a first grader could absorb), and write a book. Nine months later, Geisel, using 220 of the words given to him published The Cat in the Hat , which went on to instant success.
In 1960 Bennett Cerf bet Geisel $50 that he couldn't write an entire book using only fifty words. The result was Green Eggs and Ham . Cerf never paid the $50 from the bet.
Helen Palmer Geisel died in 1967. Theodor Geisel married Audrey Stone Diamond in 1968. Theodor Seuss Geisel died 24 September 1991.
Also worked under the pen name: Theo Le Sieg
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 289 reviews
December 27, 2024
5 stars. This is a great read-aloud! it’s funny, easy to read, very rhythmical, and has a nice moral. My siblings loved it.
June 12, 2008
My kids knew the words by heart. They probably still could recite them.
July 28, 2022
We love Dr. Seuss at my house. Especially this imaginative book.
March 25, 2014
This book is about wishing you were different. It talks about different animal body parts that would be fun to have. In the end, the character decides that he likes being himself. This would be a fun read for early childhood classrooms and elementary classrooms.
August 31, 2016
This book is a whimsical romp through a child's fantasies about what it would be like to have various parts of his body transformed into animal parts. While it's kind of amusing at times, it also weirded me out a lot as a kid because the child was clearly having fun and yet people around him were making horrified or shocked faces. I would have enjoyed it more if more of the bystanders had been celebrating his choices instead of reacting poorly. I tend to be alienated by books that depict someone expressing their individuality or being proud of their differences only to show other people giving them crap about it. I just didn't really click with this book because I was distracted by the background folks' reactions.
December 31, 2022
Dr Suess is fun to read, love his nonsense words and rhymes.
April 16, 2011
It's funny b/c I see that my brother gave this book 5 stars! It creeped me out when I was little. I think that I was always worried that the boy wouldn't be able to get rid of his new animal parts.
June 2, 2022
Very imaginative!
January 30, 2010
I Wish That I Had Duck Feet by Dr. Seuss is a story I missed somehow as a child. My son introduced me to the book. He checked it out from the library and read it to me as part of his weekly free reading assignment for school.
The book centers on a young boy, probably about my son's age, who wants to change. He wants duck feet, or antlers or a whale spout among other alterations to his body. He thinks of all the wonderful things he could do with his new powers and then the problems he would have with them.
Things get out of hand with his imagination and soon he's the latest attraction at the zoo. Sean felt horrible for the boy when he's locked up with only hay to eat. It wasn't humane treatment for a boy with "monster powers" nor was it proper treatment for a monster.
The book is cute but not one of my favorites. I'm not keen on his boy having adventures or imaging amazing things types of books. I prefer his sillier books like Fox in Socks and Red Fish, Blue Fish, Old Fish, New Fish. The one execption to this rule is McElligot's Pool.
The book centers on a young boy, probably about my son's age, who wants to change. He wants duck feet, or antlers or a whale spout among other alterations to his body. He thinks of all the wonderful things he could do with his new powers and then the problems he would have with them.
Things get out of hand with his imagination and soon he's the latest attraction at the zoo. Sean felt horrible for the boy when he's locked up with only hay to eat. It wasn't humane treatment for a boy with "monster powers" nor was it proper treatment for a monster.
The book is cute but not one of my favorites. I'm not keen on his boy having adventures or imaging amazing things types of books. I prefer his sillier books like Fox in Socks and Red Fish, Blue Fish, Old Fish, New Fish. The one execption to this rule is McElligot's Pool.
April 3, 2014
A good story about a kid who imagines how he could be unique by having different animal body parts such as duck feet, and elephant's nose, etc. After thinking of the fun stuff he could do with the parts, he then thinks of all of the problems that would result. In the end he decides to just be himself. What I like about this one, compared to the 90 million other books with the "be yourself" message, is that it shows the difference between wanting to be different for the sake of being different and seeing your inherent uniqueness. He starts out wanting the different animal parts so he can show up Big Bill Brown for some reason (the book never actually says why the kid doesn't like Bill). In the end, he decides to just be himself, even though there is no outward or obvious difference between him and everybody else.
December 17, 2019
Although this book is par for the course for a picture book, it unintentionally underminds the advantages of Ostrich feet. With ostrich feet, you can cover up to 16 feet IN ONE STRIDE. People will cower at your immense power as you clear miles in minutes. Even the president will have no authority over you. What is he going to do? Chase you? Duck feet can't do any of this. With duck feet, you can AT BEST waddle like a bit and then fall over.
In conclusion, the author of this book should do some more research before proclaiming such factually incorrect statements.
In conclusion, the author of this book should do some more research before proclaiming such factually incorrect statements.
July 1, 2019
Until this book, I had no idea that Seuss wrote other early readers under a different name Tho. LeStieg. LeSieg is Geisel backwards. He did this for books that he wrote, but did not illustrate. It’s a shame he didn’t illustrate this book. The illustrations are great, but I would love to see what Seuss would do. The story is fun, rhymes and BTobey did great illustrations. Just what a reader expects from Seuss.
March 4, 2016
A wonderful Seuss book.
A boy wishes he had various anatomical differences and explains why they would be good and why they would be bad and then makes himself happy just being him as he is.
2 problems - 1 is he continually refers to another boy as the one he doesn't like and wants to be better than but also thinks he will get tied up by. 2nd problem is that it ends a bit abruptly.
A boy wishes he had various anatomical differences and explains why they would be good and why they would be bad and then makes himself happy just being him as he is.
2 problems - 1 is he continually refers to another boy as the one he doesn't like and wants to be better than but also thinks he will get tied up by. 2nd problem is that it ends a bit abruptly.
July 18, 2015
Such a delight!
June 16, 2023
cute imaginative story about what it would feel like to have duck feet. but the list of random animals parts don't stop there. very whimsical and absolutely fun for kids.
"I wish that I had duck feet. and I can tell you why. you can splash around in duck feet. you don't have to keep them dry."
"I wish that I had duck feet. and I can tell you why. you can splash around in duck feet. you don't have to keep them dry."
February 3, 2023
No me importa que sea un libro para niños, esto fue ASOMBROSO
October 7, 2023
A boy imagines what it would be like to have an assortment of odd animal body parts, only to quite wholesomely decided that it's better to be himself. An excellent moral. Tot loves the rhyming. Again, I find that I prefer Dr.Suess without any whos, or however you spell that.
December 31, 2024
best book ever
June 1, 2015
I am always last to to tuck my 6-year old godson in when I go to visit. I kissed him and literally tucked his blankets up underneath him (::giggling:: "Why do you always do that?" "Because you are my Christo-burrito"), and as I made to leave, he said, "Will you read me a story?"
Way past his bedtime, but I can never resist. I didn't have anything good on my tablet, so I ran into the playroom, and looked at the extensive collection of children's books. I'd never read this Dr. Seuss book before, so away we went.
Longer than I'm normally allowed to read him past his bedtime, but so sweet. He and I both had a good giggle at the silly things that happened when the boy got his new animal parts. When it was discovered he couldn't get on the school bus with his giant horns, Christopher wisely said, "Uh, why doesn't he just go on sideways?"
So so so cute. You can never go wrong with Seuss.
Way past his bedtime, but I can never resist. I didn't have anything good on my tablet, so I ran into the playroom, and looked at the extensive collection of children's books. I'd never read this Dr. Seuss book before, so away we went.
Longer than I'm normally allowed to read him past his bedtime, but so sweet. He and I both had a good giggle at the silly things that happened when the boy got his new animal parts. When it was discovered he couldn't get on the school bus with his giant horns, Christopher wisely said, "Uh, why doesn't he just go on sideways?"
So so so cute. You can never go wrong with Seuss.
April 3, 2015
A wonderful book by -- when I read it a couple thousand times as a kid -- Theo. Geisel, later known as Dr. Suess, the story and illustrations captured my imagination and are part of the reason I wanted to write.
December 30, 2016
Excellent Seuss book, flows easily for a change
September 16, 2020
I have to say, I love this book! Takes me back to primary school, having a laugh at the terminology Dr. Seuss uses. It is a great book to introduce children to basic rhyming and understanding of basic poetry layouts. The artwork of the book is next to none! I love the expressions of the child imagining everything, as well as those who are looking at him. The humour in the artwork speaks for itself and is so engaging.
The overall story of the book is great. Very encouraging for children. It is about a child who is trying so desperately to stand out and be different, but soon figures out that although it might be fun, there are a lot of consequences that come with having 'duck feet' or a 'long tail'. In the end he decides that being himself is best, and to me, that's very encouraging. Being yourself is all you need to do and if you're not pretending to be something you're not then people will love you anyway! A very rewarding, rhyming story that is just a lot of fun!
The overall story of the book is great. Very encouraging for children. It is about a child who is trying so desperately to stand out and be different, but soon figures out that although it might be fun, there are a lot of consequences that come with having 'duck feet' or a 'long tail'. In the end he decides that being himself is best, and to me, that's very encouraging. Being yourself is all you need to do and if you're not pretending to be something you're not then people will love you anyway! A very rewarding, rhyming story that is just a lot of fun!
November 6, 2017
Easy enough for beginning readers to read aloud, fun for pre-schoolers to listen to and pick out all the animals in the pictures.
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December 22, 2017I enjoyed reading this with my daughter!! It has a true meaning for everyone!!
August 17, 2020
Some more whimsical fun from Dr. Seuss. This one’s at a kind of intermediate level for kids and has enough of a story to keep me interested as an adult. I was pretty happy with it.
September 11, 2020
This is a fun little story. My son loves it a lot.
April 27, 2023
This is one of the few Dr. Seuss books I didn’t read as a kid. I spotted it at my school's library one day, and borrowed it to read it to my daughter. Reading it, I assumed it must have been one of his earlier efforts, before he had developed his quintessential “Seussian” vocabulary. Turns out, it was published in 1965, which is almost smack dab in the middle of his bibliography.
The book is about a boy who longs for various animal adaptations (beginning with duck feet, of course), until, each time, he decides against it for one reason or another (namely his parents and the neighborhood… “bully”[?]*). It’s still creative and silly, but definitely feels mild in comparison to classics like Fox in Socks (which came out the same year!). There is also a nice moral at the end about being happy with who you are (although I think he could have added a page or two reiterating the point).
I also wish he had called them antlers, and not horns (I felt obligated to clarify this point to my daughter while reading, which threw off the rhythm, which is a key component to any Dr. Seuss book).
Other than that, and the underlying feeling I had that Big Bill Brown was being unfairly vilified, I have no objections (and my daughter really likes it. We even had a conversation about what animal parts it might be cool to have. She said rabbit ears, which I suspect is more for the aesthetics than the functionality. Other honorable mentions were rhino horn, [unspecified] wings, and firefly abdomen [She said "butt." I guess I should have clarified that point, too].).
Anyway, it’s good, but not great like some of Dr. Seuss’ other books (but that’s why those are the classics and this one isn’t, right?).
The book is about a boy who longs for various animal adaptations (beginning with duck feet, of course), until, each time, he decides against it for one reason or another (namely his parents and the neighborhood… “bully”[?]*). It’s still creative and silly, but definitely feels mild in comparison to classics like Fox in Socks (which came out the same year!). There is also a nice moral at the end about being happy with who you are (although I think he could have added a page or two reiterating the point).
I also wish he had called them antlers, and not horns (I felt obligated to clarify this point to my daughter while reading, which threw off the rhythm, which is a key component to any Dr. Seuss book).
Other than that, and the underlying feeling I had that Big Bill Brown was being unfairly vilified, I have no objections (and my daughter really likes it. We even had a conversation about what animal parts it might be cool to have. She said rabbit ears, which I suspect is more for the aesthetics than the functionality. Other honorable mentions were rhino horn, [unspecified] wings, and firefly abdomen [She said "butt." I guess I should have clarified that point, too].).
Anyway, it’s good, but not great like some of Dr. Seuss’ other books (but that’s why those are the classics and this one isn’t, right?).
April 21, 2021
Read Gammy's book from the 60s, love!
October 20, 2022
This is one of my favorite Dr. Seuss books. I love it, because it is funny and fun to read with kids! I also like the message it gives to kids about liking yourself for who you are. Like his other books, Dr. Seuss uses rhyme and repetition in this book. He has great command of the English language. I could see this being used as a jumping off point for a writing lesson with students. You could ask them what animal body part they might think would be fun and then write about the pros and cons of having it. The book also could be used to show children that things can be good or bad depending on how you look at them. It teaches shades of grey.
April 2, 2014
I got this for my son as he likes Dr Seuss and I only had a copy of his books at home. This was not as good as I wanted it to be. The boy uses his imagination to think about what his life would be like if he had things like duck feet, an elephant’s trunk and a whale spout, or even better all of them together. But then he realizes that he is better just being himself. Of course, it took him over 65 pages to realize this, and the story dragged on and on. My son got bored pretty quick, as did I. Recommended for ages 4-7, 2 stars.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 289 reviews