Dilly Duck Plays All Day by Holly DiBella-McCarthy - 5/5

Dilly Duck Plays All Day is such a cute story that captured my children's attention. The illustrations are adorable and finding a story that introduces ducks to my kids was wonderful as they love seeing them out on the water. The book was helpful with the counting, colors and learning about friendships.

Dilly Duck Plays All Day by Holly DiBella-McCarthy with art by Pradyut Chatterjee is a quick, colourful, and engaging picture book that will help your little ones with math and reading skills as well as building their emotional vocabulary and other social skills. The simple rhyming storyline is easy-to-follow while the illustrations are cute and eyecatching.

This little adventure follows Dilly Duck who begins her day, sad and alone, on the bank of a big lake in a park called Wonder Wake. She decides to set off into the lake and gathers her friends for a day of togetherness and fun!

I really enjoyed the easy-to-read and simple rhyming storyline! It is catchy with a great rhythm and flows very naturally. The short sentences are kid-friendly and are filled with approachable words. Kids will definitely have fun reading this aloud! The counting of the ducks every time a new friend joins Dilly will be a great tool to help young readers learn numbers and practice their counting. The book also gently teaches kids about valuing friendship, helping each other, and understanding how each other’s emotions and moods can change depending on the situation. I like that DiBella-McCarthy makes these learning instances effortlessly fun and approachable.

There is a great question section at the end of the book which encourages participation from young readers. There is also a little section with information on ducks-did you know that they can see very far and very close all at the same time?

I love Chatterjee’s colourful and wonderfully detailed illustrations! The nature scenes are lovely. All the ducks are so distinct and cute with different colours. I love their expressive little faces as they play games like pattycake and dance the jitterbug in the lake!



🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆 out of 5 little ducks!

Thank you NetGalley and BiblioKid for accepting my request to read and review Dilly Duck Plays All Day.

Author: Holly DiBella-McCarthy
Published: 09/06/22
Genre: Children's Fiction

This lovely children's book includes cute illustrations that work simultaneously with the written portion of the story. Counting to ten is one feature, with teamwork being another.

There are plenty of options in the book to hold several conversations with a child. I appreciated the cohesiveness.

I do see this giftable to parents, grandparents and relatives. As for the babysitter, the story presents itself in a fashion to be enjoyed without sneaking in a lesson or two.

Dilly the Duck is all alone, until she is not – she gathers her fellow ducks together one by one, until they can all bond joyously, safe from the threats and nastiness of the big wide world. In other words, this is a counting revision tool, but one with a pretty reasonable narrative, and a very successful rhyming approach to the text. An easy for-sharing volume that should by default grab the young attention for a least a few times through.

What a cute book! It's counting and rhyming is reminiscent of Ten in the Bed, a long time favorite. This is a great book for little ones learning to count but it's also a good lesson about having friends. The illustrations are really fun and engaging. This Nana loved it!

This children's book is a story with some counting to help count up to ten. It has some lovely illustrations and is a fun read.

I'm sure lots of young readers will enjoy being able to count along with the ducks in the story.

This book is cute, but it’s definitely for younger readers. My 6 year old enjoyed the story, but it was a little too young for her. Her favorite part was the duck life facts at the end. I could see this being a sweet story for kids in the 2-4 range, and it would definitely help with learning numbers!

This book is super cute! I absolutely love that it rhymes each time a new duck friend joins Dilly Duck. This book is great for a young reader since there really aren't any hard words to try to pronounce or understand.

This is a very cute duck themed counting book. It is elevated by the authors notes in the back that provide more information about ducks and prompt young readers to practice early math skills and answer questions about what they've read.

Dilly Duck Plays All Day by Holly DiBella-McCarthy was a really cute children’s book about counting his duck friends. The illustrations are beautiful. I cannot wait to find the book and read it to my granddaughter she loves 🦆 ducks.