Duck's Key: Where Can It Be?

This is the shortest and simplest outing I've seen so far of Jez Alborough's popular Duck series, running to about 100 words and eight double-page lift-the-flap spreads, and the slightly lower rating was chosen to reflect this caveat for those expecting a longer tale along the lines of previous romps. Alborough packs in a lot of fun, however: Duck puzzles while Frog directs gleeful asides to the reader in the rhyming text, and the illustrations are as polished and enjoyable as ever. With more verve than is often found in books of this type, Duck's Key: Where Can It Be is a fun introduction to Duck for a very young audience (aged about 24 months and up), and an enjoyable coda to the series for his older, die-hard fans. The wide-based flaps of our hard-back version have worn well with solid re-reading, though a true board-book format would perhaps be more appropriate given the age range most likely to relish it. My four-year-old loves "reading" this on his own, and I've ordered copies for his toddler cousins.

My 3 year old loves lift the flap books. We also love Jez Alborough. The combination is great. The book may lack some of the textual fun that makes the duck series great, but the drawings have enough detail to warrant repeated reading. It is also pretty sturdy. no flaps have been lost in the first month of reading nightly.

My 4 year old boy memorized this book. It's very clever, with nice animation about ducks, frogs and trucks. It rhymes with a fun playful theme about an absent minded duck and a clever frog hiding his key to the truck..Nice flap book..