You Can't Have Too Many Friends

This absurdist version of French folktale "Drakestail" stars a farmer duck who is wealthy in jelly beans. When a little-boy king "borrows" his jelly beans, Duck sets off to get them back. Along the way he makes some odd yet helpful friends. Gerstein's pen-and-ink, acrylic, and colored-pencil illustrations employ a cheerful palette, with scribbly lines and dialogue bubbles.

A clever, high-spirited retelling of the French folktale “Drakestail” that uses borrowed jelly beans to set the plot in motion—a fun twist that’s sure to hit kids’ sweet spot. As Duck marches forward, he sings, “Quack, quack, quack! Quack, quack, quack! We’re off to get my jelly beans back!” This jaunty refrain supplies You Can’t Have Too Many Friends with lots of pleasant repetition. It also supplies tension; as Duck get closer to the King, the song grows more insistent and larger on the page. While the first half of the story is buoyantly silly (after all, Duck’s friends include a babbling brook and a ladder), the second half unfolds with the just-so rightness of a logic puzzle. Each friend is able to help Duck overcome one of the King’s obstacles—but which? Readers will delight in figuring it out alongside the web-footed protagonist. Mordicai Gerstein entertainingly depicts the King as a contemporary spoiled kid, partial to “I’m the King” tee-shirts and a baseball cap with golden arches, worn backward. The mix of text and speech bubbles adds visual dynamism. Gerstein’s ability to capture movement—wasps swarming, water whooshing—keeps the energy in high gear from first page to last.

This retold French folktale ("Drakestail") stars a farmer duck who, in this absurdist version, is wealthy in the jelly beans he has grown. When the little-boy king "borrows" his jelly beans and doesn't return them, Duck sets off on a quest to get them back. Along the way, he meets a large, friendly, shaggy green dog who "shrinks and hops into Duck's pocket"; "Lady Ladder" who does the same; a burbling brook that Duck carries in his gullet; and some wasps transported in Duck's ear. These new friends all come in handy when the king declines to give back the candy. Listening children will anticipate the role of each of Duck's pals and will enjoy seeing the king's nasty acts rightfully rewarded, especially when he's chased naked out of his bathtub by the wasps. This is anything but a heavy-handed moral treatment, though -- Gerstein's pen-and-ink, acrylic, and colored-pencil illustrations employ a cheerful palette, with scribbly lines and dialogue bubbles. Each picture includes humorous details such as the web-footed claw bathtub and the queen's fuzzy slippers. And in the end, the king makes reparations, sitting down to a jelly-bean feast with Duck and his odd group of friends. susan dove lempke