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Double Ducks

by Ryanin Bryce; Illustrated by Trent Milburn

30 pages; Saddle stitched; catalogue #07-3005; ISBN 1-4251-6507-9; US$16.00, C$16.00, EUR10.93, £8.26

Puzzled, Darcy watches his ducks build their nests together, side-by-side. How many eggs? How will they look after all of them? After the ducklings hatch, Darcy counts and discovers his answers.

About the Book

Darcy lived on a faraway station property with his brother Doug. Of all the wild and tame animals his favourites were his pet ducks. One day Darcy noticed two sister ducklings had become inseparable. They waddled, ate, swam and did everything together.

When the two ducks grew up, they built their nests side by side and laid their eggs together. Darcy wondered what they would do when their eggs hatched. Which duck would teach the ducklings to swim? Which mother duck would the ducklings follow? Darcy asked Frederick, the station jackeroo. He knew everything about animals.

In time, as the ducks laid their eggs the boys watched and counted. How many eggs would the two ducks lay? How many would hatch? How would they all fit in the nest? And… how would the ducks raise their ducklings together?

The ducks guarded their valuable eggs against the perils of the changing temperature, a resident blue-tongue lizard and Bodgie, the nosy station dog.

When the big day arrived, the ducklings began tapping their way out of their confined eggs. One by one, each duckling struggled out from its broken eggshell into the protection of its warm, downy home and had its first wobbly walk.

Finally, the boys' curiosity was satisfied. One mother led a line of disorganized, yellow, fluffy balls from the nest while the other mother brought up the rear, gently nudging the ducklings along. Darcy counted carefully. Yes, he sighed smiling. Yes! There was the same number of ducklings as there were eggs.

About the Author

Ryanin Bryce is a passionate teacher and education curriculum consultant, and proud parent and grandparent.

Her interest in the environment and education began during her childhood while growing up in the rural hills near Perth.

Ryanin worked at many schools in both the city and country areas of Western Australia. She especially enjoyed exploring and living in the culturally diverse Kimberly region of Western Australia.

During her many years of teaching, Ryanin shared some of her interesting stories with her students. These included real life experiences from her childhood, hilarious animal antics and her own travelling adventures. Children would plead for these stories to be told again and again.

Later, some of the stories evolved into becoming an integral part of her interest and focus on children's development of conceptual frameworks in mathematics and natural sciences.