Make Way for Ducklings
Make Way for Ducklings is a children's picture book written and illustrated by Robert McCloskey. It was first printed in 1941. The book is about two mallard ducks who decide to raise their family on an island in the lagoon in Boston Public Garden, a park in the middle of Boston, Massachusetts.
Make Way for Ducklings won the 1942 Caldecott Medal for McCloskey's pictures, drawn in charcoal, then lithographed on zinc. In 2003, the book had sold more than two million copies. The book was so popular a statue of a mother duck and her eight ducklings were set up in the Public Garden. In 1991, Barbara Bush gave a copy of this statue to Raisa Gorbachev as part of the START Treaty, and the work is in Moscow's Novodevichy Park.
The book is the official children's book of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The book is still highly praised for over 60 years because of its pictures and pace. However, it was criticised for having a loose plot (story) and weak characters. The book is very popular around the world.
References
1941 books
English-language picture books