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What I'm Reading

 Most people know the bare bones of "The Ugly Duckling": a baby looks different and is mocked, but eventually the baby grows to be a magnificent swan. Don't make easy assumptions about difference! Difference can be good.

Jerry Pinkney tells the full story, and it's more harrowing than I would have thought. Like Joseph, the ugly duckling becomes separated from his siblings. He spends many months on an odyssey. Hunters almost shoot him; dogs almost eat him. He tries to dwell in a farmhouse, with a nasty cat, but he misses the water too much. By this point, he has encountered so much cruelty, he isn't sure he deserves to live. He assumes strangers have ill will (though they're sometimes actually friendly).

By luck, our hero makes it through the winter and finds "his people." He rejoices. He says he is grateful to have lived through all the pain he encountered--because, now, he can *really* appreciate happiness.

Jerry Pinkney has won many awards--most notably, the Caldecott Medal for "The Lion and the Mouse." "The Ugly Duckling" was "merely" an "honor" recipient, but its images make you think of Turner and Monet. I can't imagine more-ravishing pictures from a book for children. The paintings almost seem "alive."

Well, I love this book, and I think we're lucky that Pinkney has such a reliable work ethic. I am looking forward to his "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" and his "Little Match Girl" -- also -- soon.




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