10 Little Rubber Ducks

On January 10, 1992, a cargo of around 29,000 rubber toys—including ducks, beavers, turtles, and frogs—fell overboard from a container ship in the northern Pacific Ocean. Some eventually landed on a remote coast of Alaska. In Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam, and the Science of Ocean Motion author Loree Griffin Burns explains what actually happened to these objects, following the work of Dr. Curtis Ebbesmeyer, who tracked the toys around the world.

But our book of the day, and author/artist of the day, is a bit more whimsical in his approach to the events of January 10, 1992. Eric Carle has always said that he is never happier than when he is painting the collage papers that he uses to build his artwork. In 10 Little Rubber Ducks, he once again shares his joy with readers as he imagines what the journey of the rubber ducks on that container ship might have been like. He shows the ducks being built, put into boxes, loaded on the ship, and getting dumped into the big wide sea.

Drawing on what he does best—the depiction of fish, birds, and mammals; all creatures great and small—Eric shows each of the ten ducks encountering different creatures, from a polar bear to a flamingo. A whale sings to the ninth rubber duck. But he saves for the tenth the best fate of all, being adopted by a mother duck and becoming part of a family. I know I feel a lot better about the world after reading this reassuring book. It shows that difficult situations can be survived and have happy endings. If for any reason you need further entertaining, a squeak device for the rubber duck has been built into the last page of the book. He certainly sounds happy.

Few have ever shown the joy and enthusiasm about life on this planet as brilliantly as Eric Carle. After a brief childhood in the United States, he was taken with his German parents back to Hitler’s Germany. Brutally disciplined in school, Eric knew personally what it meant to move from joy to difficulty. But much like his rubber ducks, he found a happy ending, a home back in the United States, painting and drawing his collage masterpieces that give both adults and children so much joy.

With Rubber Duckie Day occurring on the thirteenth of this month, you might want to get out yours and read 10 Little Rubber Ducks. For me the world always seems a kinder, gentler place after I finish any book by Eric Carle.

Here’s a page from 10 Little Rubber Ducks: