by Moe Zilla

Created on: February 10, 2009   Last Updated: February 18, 2009

When it was first published in 1941, it won the Caldecott medal as "the most distinguished American picture book for children" - and its tall, 9-inch drawings are amazing. "Make Way For Ducklings" boasts 32 two-page charcoal sketches, perfectly depicting a bird's eye view of Boston - and doing it realistically. Their skillful shading captures everything - the shadows on a hill, the grass of a field, shadows from a tree, the light on a lake. Eight sketches on the inside cover even show the stages of an egg cracking and a duckling hatching - standing up, looking over its body, and then strutting proudly away.

But the sketches bring to life the story of a mother duck and her husband, who fly high in the sky while the first page tells us they're, searching for a place to live. "[E]very time Mr. Mallard saw what looked like a nice place, Mrs. Mallard said it was no good," writes Robert McCloskey. He's a skillful writer as well as an illustrator, and the text gives the pictures a real dream. His ducks have personality, and the setting is rendered beautifully. But what will happen when they land by the pond at the Public Garden?

The ducks fish for breakfast in the pond - with tiny townspeople in the background - "but they didn't find much." But soon a swan-shaped tour boat drifts by - with 17 people - and the ducks swim alongside to catch peanuts. ("I like this place," says Mrs. Mallard.) They swim over Beacon Hill, and Boston's Louisburg Square, until finally settling on a nearby clump of bushes in by the Charles River. A friendly policeman named Michael even starts feeding them peanuts!

Soon the duck family is "bursting with pride" over their eight ducklings. The mother duck teachers her ducklings to follow her in a line, and sticks her bill in the air as Michael the policeman stops traffic for her. The family of ducks delights the Boston townspeople, as more policemen clear a path through traffic. (Some editions of the book use this as the cover illustration - the family of ducks forcing the traffic to literally "make way for ducklings!") But oblivious to their good fortune, the ducks reunite with their father on the island at the center of Boston's Public Garden, their new home. "All day long they follow the swan boats and eat peanuts," McCloskey writes. "And when night falls they swim to their little island and go to sleep."

And they're living their still. In 1987, the real Boston Public Gardens installed a bronze sculpture of the famous duck family!

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