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Chuckling Ducklings and Baby Animal Friends {Review and Giveaway}

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This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Your kids may be familiar with the names of some baby animals, like kittens and piglets. Sure, those are easy. Bonus points if they know calf or foal. But I’m willing to bet that they (and probably you, too!) have no idea what kind of animal young’un is called a leveret, or a puggle, or my favorite of the bunch, a cheeper. Thanks to Aaron Zenz’ latest picture book Chuckling Ducklings and Baby Animal Friends, my kids and I are newly informed and still giggling over the cuteness of these little ones.

With each page turn, young readers are introduced to a new baby animal, starting off with some that will probably be familiar. Giggles will likely ensue when multiple animals share the same name, as it did with my kids when we read the word “cub” four times on one page featuring a raccoon, a bear, a panda, and a tiger. Silly, right? Zenz even gets a little tricky when he shows both a baby female and male horse, which technically are both referred to as foals, but each has its own gender-specific name, too. (Do you know them?)

My kids have been long interested in birds, and the two-page spread that features a whopping eight baby birds, each sitting atop a parent, introduced several new words to all of us. (I’ll tell you that the cheeper is featured on this page, but I’m not giving away what it is!)

The text consists of only a few words on each page, introducing over 50 different animals, but the true delight is found in the illustrations. The animals ooze adorableness, and Zenz’s colored pencil artwork has total kid appeal. For families looking for a little giggly reading fun that introduces new words, and possibly even a few new animals, be sure to check out Chuckling Ducklings and Baby Animal Friends. And for you avid book blog readers, Aaron Zenz and his children regularly post at Bookie Woogie, where they have delightful conversations about children’s literature.

**The 5 Minutes for Books team are happy to be a part of Scholastic’s Parent Circle. Each month, one of our reviewers will select a book from that month’s Scholastic Book Club flyers. I selected Chuckling Ducklings and Baby Animal Friends from April’s Honeybee flyer.

We are happy to offer a paperback copy of this cute picture book as featured in the Scholastic book club flyer to one lucky reader. Leave a comment to enter, and we’ll announce our winner in our book column on 4/9.

The winner of How Not to Kill Your Baby is #49 Eileen.

5 Minutes for Books reviewer Dawn spends her days surrounded by her preschool students, and her evenings catching up with her own three kids. When she gets the chance, she blogs away at my thoughts exactly.

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72 Comments

  6. I WOULD LOVE TO GIVE THIS AS A BIRTHDAY GIFT TO MY NEPHEW. HE WOULD EQUALLY LOVE IT AS WELL =)

    Reply

  10. I would love to get this book for my college age daughter Kate, I have always bought her books for her Easter basket since she was a little girl. With the help of these books she teaches preschool children and is working on her Masters degree in Special Education at George Mason in Va. She has always been a reader to herself and any children she has taught. She also teaches a chapter about farm animals where this would be very helpful she really goes all out makes barns out of boxes brings in little picked fences from garden trimming for fences and all her children in her class bring in stuffed animals to put by barn. This book would be a great educational benifit for her class room library.
    ps really miss the Scholastic papers coming home since my Katie has grown up, wish there was a way I could still purchase through those specials.

    Reply

  14. This is such a cute book. Thank you for the opportunity to win.

    marianne dot wanham at gmail dot com

    Reply

  17. We would love to add this book to our collection. We love to read and are always looking for quality books

    Reply

  21. Thanks for the chance to win this for my preschool classroom. It would be especially nice to use with our unit on farm animals.

    Reply

  25. This is a real sweet book,and my granddaughter would love it. Please enter me. Thanks!
    ayancey(at)dishmail(dot)net

    Reply

  28. I have 8 grandchildren ,7 of whom are under the age of 6 so this would be such a perfect book to keep at my house to read to them,they love for Mamaw to read to them

    vlbelk(at)hotmail.com

    Reply

  43. I would love to share this with my two year-old grandson (an later with the one coming in October!) Just this weekend he became more ‘understandable’. Says “Gammaw” a lot; meows all the time (don’t know why!); is fascinated by “kitty” and “puppies”.

    Reply

  60. My kids would love this! Please count me in for the giveaway thanks!

    Margaret
    singitm(at)hotmail(dot)com

    Reply

  63. Could the cover of this wonderful book be any cuter?!
    I don’t think so… Baby animal books are always fun!
    This would be such a fun book to read to my sons…
    Many thanks to you!
    Cindi

    Reply

  64. That looks adorable! We love the scholastic fliers every month and would love to win the Chuckling Ducklings. 🙂 zucchinisummer AT gmail DOT com

    Reply

  68. This book looks adorable! My kids are always asking what noise an animal makes so I’m sure they would love this book!

    Reply

  72. That sounds like a really cute book, we’re always looking for new ones to add to our kid’s little library.

    Reply