Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey

As surely as you must be saying, “Didn’t Kate and Betsy just do a Robert McCloskey book?” so too I answer you, “Yep,” and “Indubidably,” and “Is that how you spell that word?” and “No, actually it’s ‘Indubitably’ which just looks wrong but it’s true.” All this you must be saying, but the only point I can answer directly is whether or not we just did a Robert McCloskey book. We did, but it is not his most famous work. So it was that I sprang the tale of Mr. and Mrs. Mallard on my poor unsuspecting sister. She never knew what hit her. That said, we somehow manage to say a LOT about it! Vicious egg-eating turtles and all.

Listen to the whole show here on Soundcloud or download it through iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or your preferred method of podcast selection.

Show Notes:

– Just in case you’re curious, the Twitter handle for us is @fuse_kate and on Instagram at fuse8kate.

– As a reminder, Minders of Make-Believe by Leonard Marcus is always my go-to source on these books:

– I always assumed that this was just one duckling, hatching. But now that I look at it, I think she’s right. That’s seven different ducks.

– This guy. My go-to Boston accent resides in his vocal chords.

– Here are the ducklings in statue form in Boston:

And here they are in the cold:

And here they are supporting the local sports team:

And attending the Women’s March:

You can visit sculptor Nancy Schon’s website on the ducklings here.

– A bit of a correction here. I got my story COMPLETELY mixed up. The true tale (as I got it from the ALSC blog post Where’s Dick?) is that McCloskey saw Nixon somewhere (this being 1941 I’ve no idea where), noted his profile, and decided to use it for the book. So my theory that it’s one of the kids was way WAY off. Here’s the man people claim is Nixon:

– That doesn’t stop this little bugger from being a jerk, though.

– See, Kate thinks that this guy is a Boy Scout. I’m going to have to ask the ether for information on the matter. No cap, might be the best objection to the theory, don’t you think?

– Best duck interjection of all time. How precisely do you pronounce this when you’re reading it to a child?

– Queep

– Book’s Quak

– My Kwak

– Here are the two picture books I was talking about. The first is the story about the ducks down the drain called Lucky Ducklings by Eva Moore and Nancy Carpenter:

– The other is by Patricia Polacco about ducks that take the elevator to a fountain every day called John Philip Duck.

– It came in at #6 on the Top 100 Picture Books Poll.

– Please do tell me what you consider to be the most unknown Caldecott Award (not Honor) winner of all time. Write in!

– Did you wonder what Kate looked like as Merida? Eh, voila!!

– The book I was discussing was The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict (about Hedy Lamarr). Here’s how they sent me the galley, though:

– And I’m not one to usually talk up holiday gifts, but if you have that relative that’s hard to buy for but that loves literature in some way, Bibliophile by Jane Mount is honestly the best book to get them on the subject. It’s incredibly gorgeous.

– And as a reminder, if you’ve nothing going on this coming Thursday at 3:00, tune in to Author’s Voice where I’ll be interviewing, Sean Rubin, the creator of Bolivar. You can watch live (and write in questions) here. It’s a great way to get a signed copy (and not a bad idea if you need a graphic novel for a younger reader that would make yet another gorgeous holiday present):

Filed under: Fuse 8 n' Kate