Make Way for Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack and Quack...

September 03, 2019

Good Morning 1000 Bookies!

Our next selection from 1000 Books to Read Before You Die takes place in the city of the Boston. Personally, I love Boston and have ever since I first ventured there as an 8^th grader during a field trip for the all-boys prep school I attended. It was love at first sight and that love has endured. My wife and I had several wonderful trips to the city over the years including the one where I purchased her engagement ring. Bostin is the land of the Puritans, of John Winthrop, Cotton Mather, Young Benjamin Franklin, James Otis, Samuel Adams, John Adams, John Hancock. Boston is the Shining City on a Hill that President Reagan invoked. In modern times, Boston was home to the Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys, Progressive ideals, Gay Marriage and the Red Sox.

Whenever I am lucky enough to travel to Boston, I love to walk the Freedom Trail, to see and experience several important sites from an important colony, the fight for freedom and Independence. From the Bunker Hill Monument to the Old North Church from Faneuil Hall to Paul Revere’s House, you can experience our history first hand. See where Benjamin Franklin was born, as well as Old South Meeting House where freedom of expression and speech still lives today.

There have been many wonderful stories set in the city of Boston, classics such as The Scarlett Letter, The Trumpet of the Swan, Johnny Tremaine, and the Last Hurrah. Boston has embraced its history and culture which are inseparable from its character and charm. One such example of this embrace is the children’s classic Make Way for Ducklings. Published in 1941, the book takes place in the Boston Public Garden and other sites around the city. Mr. Robert McCloskey is the author and illustrator. During his award-winning career, He wrote and illustrated 19 books and over 2 million copies of this Make Way for Ducklings have been sold. Mr. McCloskey was awarded the Caldecott Medal for Make Way for Ducklings. The Caldecott Medal is awarded to recognize the most distinguished American picture book for children.

The book follows the travels of Mr. and Mrs. Mallard who are looking for a place to birth and raise their ducklings. They are flying over Boston when they decide to spend the night at the Boston Public Gardens. The book points out several important landmarks in Boston—the Swan Boats, the Statehouse, Beacon Hill and the Charles River. The book portrays the police as servants of all. You meet the entire Mallard clan including the ducklings—Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack and Quack. The illustration is beautiful. The book teaches children landmarks, a respect for all God’s Creatures, and respect for the police.

The reason, I believe, this book is listed on the 1000 Books to Read Before You Die is its sentimentality. My daughter Rachael was given the book by my Aunt and Uncle. Make Way for Ducklings is handed down generation to generation and read with abandon by parents and grandparents to our children. They can then go to Boston and see the sites and look for the ducks at the Boston Public Gardens, they just have to avoid the duck poop. I did so just last week. For its part, Boston has embraced the story, commissioning and erecting a statue of the ducklings in 1987. While I was visiting the Boston Public Gardens, I witnessed many tourists gathered around the statue—each remembering the person who read the story to them or who they read the story and smiled.

Please pick up a copy for the child in your life and read it to them, many years from now while they are attending college, or on a business trip or a vacation, they will see that statue and think of you!