Duck On A Bike

Title: Duck On A Bike
Author: David Shannon
Publisher: Blue Sky Press
Publication Date: 2002
Illustrator: David Shannon
Genre Designation: Children’s Fiction
Readability Lexile: K-2 (ages 4-8)

Summary:
In this fun loving story by David Shannon a duck decides that he is going to ride a bike.  Duck goes for a bike ride through the farm passing all the animals along the way.  All the animals had something different to say about this crazy duck riding a bike, but what would happen if they were lucky enough to have a bike of their own to ride?  Many young readers will enjoy this story because of the humor that is effortlessly merged into the story.  The illustrations are also another key aspect of the story that will pull young readers into the story because of the lively colors, and how the pictures continue to lead from one page to another throughout the entire story. 

Evaluation:
I liked this story because it showed the duck doing something that he didn’t think he could necessarily do.  Even though it is presented to the reader in this fantasy type plot of a duck riding a bike, with all the animals talking to him as he rides by, it is still a story that we can all make a personal connection to.  Sometimes it is often hard to find characters that show growth within young children’s literature, however I feel as if this story shows character growth as we progress through the story.  The reader can see this with the other farm animals through the story.  Much of the story shows the animals not being supportive and some even being “mean” about duck wanting to ride a bike.  However, at the end we see the animals loving how much fun riding bikes is, and even telling duck what a good idea it was to ride a bike.  Duck On A Bike uses the literary element of onomatopoeia.  As the reader we can see this many times throughout the book when the farm animals “talk” to the duck by making their sounds.  David Shannon also uses personification within the story by giving the animals multiple human qualities, such as talking and the ability to ride a bike.  My favorite part of the book is something that some people may not even notice, and that is the very last page of the book.  The last page of the book simply says, “The End” and has the duck standing there looking at a tractor.  I like this because it allows for foreshadowing and prediction by the reader, without giving a definite answer.

Illustrations:
The illustrations in the book are great for a young reader because they give great picture clues.  A young reader who may not be at independent reading level yet with this story, would still be able to pick this book up and read based on the pictures.  The pictures are lively and offer real life colors and images that young readers can relate to.  I especially appreciated how the pictures had a set point that the illustrator was trying to get across to the reader, and was not too overstimulating for the reader. 

Mini-Lesson:

As a class we will focus on the last page of the book and focus on the idea of foreshadowing and prediction.  What is the author trying to tell us (the reader) about duck?  As the teacher the question will then be posed to the class, “If you were the author David Shannon who would your next book be about and what would their adventure be?”  I would provide a few examples to help the class get their brains warmed up, and then provide them with the “cover of their book” otherwise known as a variety of colored construction papers that they can chose from.  They will then decorate their cover with their main character, their adventure, and title.  This will help us work on identifying main character, plot, and our writing.