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Duck! Rabbit!
by
New York Times bestselling children's book!
Smart, simple story that will make readers of all ages eager to take a side: From the award-winning author of Little Pea, Little Hoot, and Little Oink comes a clever take on the age-old optical illusion: is it a duck or a rabbit? Depends on how you look at it! Readers will find more than just Amy Krouse Rosenthal's signature humo ...more
Smart, simple story that will make readers of all ages eager to take a side: From the award-winning author of Little Pea, Little Hoot, and Little Oink comes a clever take on the age-old optical illusion: is it a duck or a rabbit? Depends on how you look at it! Readers will find more than just Amy Krouse Rosenthal's signature humo ...more
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Hardcover, 32 pages
Published
March 11th 2009
by Chronicle Books
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Long ago, I first saw this cartoon, inspired by a Victorian optical illusion, and saved it as a favourite.

"There can be no peace until they renounce their Rabbit God and accept our Duck God."
In recent years, I've become especially fond of it, as a timely message to counter the entrenched and divisive politics in many parts of the world, including my own (Brexit, for example). It doesn’t apply where one person is arguing that 2+ 2 = 5, but it’s a simple and useful reminder that on many issues, op ...more

"There can be no peace until they renounce their Rabbit God and accept our Duck God."
In recent years, I've become especially fond of it, as a timely message to counter the entrenched and divisive politics in many parts of the world, including my own (Brexit, for example). It doesn’t apply where one person is arguing that 2+ 2 = 5, but it’s a simple and useful reminder that on many issues, op ...more

A fun picture book with the theme that this drawing could either be a duck or a rabbit. For me it has to be a rabbit, if it were a duck the eye is just too far away. Nice to read it and form your own opinions.
Read on open library
Read on open library

What a fun book! This is a story of two (off-stage) people looking at the same object and seeing two entirely different things (is it a duck, or is it a rabbit?). The beauty of this book is that the object we are looking at is such a simply illustrated form, and it will be quite easy for younger children to look at the picture and immediately identify it as one or the other. The fun comes in throughout the subsequent pages, as both of the people offer up compelling evidence to convince the other
...more

12 April 2009
Highly recommended for preschool age. Crazy fun. Also, fun for those who are not preschool age.
***
7 March 2013
Youngest kid and I had fun with this. It's interesting the way one's perception toggles back and forth with the text. Excellent optical illusion, and yet, so simple.
Library copy. ...more
Highly recommended for preschool age. Crazy fun. Also, fun for those who are not preschool age.
***
7 March 2013
Youngest kid and I had fun with this. It's interesting the way one's perception toggles back and forth with the text. Excellent optical illusion, and yet, so simple.
Library copy. ...more

Featured in grandma reads session. . .
This picture book is all about visual clues and what your brain tells you is on the page. It is great fun to see little children, or any human seeing it for the first time. . .as there is an actual beat that happens before that second possibility is admitted. There is a first seen right away, and when you watching them you can see when they either see it themselves or hear the whispers of others about a second possibility and override their brain and see the ...more
This picture book is all about visual clues and what your brain tells you is on the page. It is great fun to see little children, or any human seeing it for the first time. . .as there is an actual beat that happens before that second possibility is admitted. There is a first seen right away, and when you watching them you can see when they either see it themselves or hear the whispers of others about a second possibility and override their brain and see the ...more

This is like reading a PG version of a Goodreads comment thread... except that people concede that the others may have had a point!
It's a quick read. The strength of the book really lies in its premise. The illustrations aren't all that impressive; they're not something that would make me pick the book up again, in any case.
Duck! Rabbit! is fine as a novelty, but it isn't especially interesting. I'd recommend checking it out from the library before you buy; it might be a little unsatisfying for ...more
It's a quick read. The strength of the book really lies in its premise. The illustrations aren't all that impressive; they're not something that would make me pick the book up again, in any case.
Duck! Rabbit! is fine as a novelty, but it isn't especially interesting. I'd recommend checking it out from the library before you buy; it might be a little unsatisfying for ...more

Meghan Markle read this to me in a video on instagram so technically.... this goes on the "read" shelf😏
...more

5 STARS FOR CONCEPT, THREE FOR EXECUTION. Love the concept of this story! I think I was just expecting a bit more. Would have been fun to see a variety of animals like the duck/rabbit doing various things, but I still feel this is a really important story to share with kids--shows how we can have different perspectives on an issue and there is not necessarily a "right" and "wrong" involved.
I still prefer a book from my childhood, called "It Looks Like This" with a variety of mice looking through ...more
I still prefer a book from my childhood, called "It Looks Like This" with a variety of mice looking through ...more

Duck! Rabbit! is one book that I knew was just not going to be something I would naturally pick out to read to the kids. The cover shows the entire plot of the book, for pity sake! I thought it was going to be insubstantial, overdone, and ridiculous, and it was. But I can see why this book does appeal to kids, especially to kids that are my nephew's age (pre-school). I can also see how this book can help kids in that age range learn to see things from different perspectives.
Nevertheless, I was j ...more
Nevertheless, I was j ...more

Two off-page voices argue back and forth about whether they are looking at a duck or a rabbit. Children will probably first see only one of the animals, but when a piece of bread appears almost in the duck’s bill they will see the duck. Then when the carrot is offered to the rabbit, they will see the rabbit. This is a great visual puzzle that will get children ready to look at more complex optical illusions. The book is infused with humor that will keep any youngster from feeling badly if they c
...more

Is that a duck? Or is that a rabbit? Look, it’s dipping its ears in the water to cool off! No, that duck is just using its beak to get a sip of water on a hot summer day. This is a fun interactive book that you can read over and over again with your little one and still be guessing all the way. Enjoy this one now by checking out a copy on Mymcpl.org or searching for it on Overdrive! – Reviewed by Stephanie at MCPL Reading Rocket

LOVED IT!
Two characters are discussing whether a picture they see is a duck or a rabbit. It's the classic optical illusion, but it's matter of perspective. When they add certain things to support their point of view, the other adds something too and you actually see both!
Personally, I am team rabbit! :) ...more
Two characters are discussing whether a picture they see is a duck or a rabbit. It's the classic optical illusion, but it's matter of perspective. When they add certain things to support their point of view, the other adds something too and you actually see both!
Personally, I am team rabbit! :) ...more

Jul 22, 2016
Stef Rozitis
rated it
it was amazing
Shelves:
early-childhood,
other-animals,
humour,
inclusion,
recommended-to-me,
education,
5-star,
books-for-girls,
comedy,
2011-2020
I really loved this book, because in the simplest and most playful way it calls into question point-of-view and discourse. YES!!!! Show children this as early as possible in life and then encourage them to use that way of seeing on every other text they ever come to!!!!
I think for the very earliest age-group you would struggle to come up with a better book than this!
I think for the very earliest age-group you would struggle to come up with a better book than this!

Rosenthal, Amy Krouse. Duck! Rabbit! illus. by Tom Lichtenheld. Chronicle Books. Trade. ISBN 978-8118-6865-5 $16.99. unpaged. (Preschool, Primary).
Duck! Rabbit! is told by two unidentified characters in first person narrative each believing the animal is a duck or a rabbit. Sparse, bold, simple text is found in the upper top left and right hand corners of each page. "Hey, look! A duck"! "That's not a duck. That's a rabbit"! "Are you kidding me? It's totally a duck." "It's for sure a rabbit." Thi ...more
Duck! Rabbit! is told by two unidentified characters in first person narrative each believing the animal is a duck or a rabbit. Sparse, bold, simple text is found in the upper top left and right hand corners of each page. "Hey, look! A duck"! "That's not a duck. That's a rabbit"! "Are you kidding me? It's totally a duck." "It's for sure a rabbit." Thi ...more


Check out more Picture book reviews @ Perspective of a Writer...
Is is a duck or a rabbit? A subtle optical illusion storybook.
This is a cute book that is all about the gimmick. It was fun to read with my nephew who took a few pages to understand what was going on. We read this digitally and it was fun to turn on the narration. My nephew especially loved that since he has trouble remembering how to pronounce words, even words he knows.
I'm not sure I bought into the gimmick though. It always loo ...more

Based on a drawing made in 1899 by American psychologist Joseph Jastrow, Duck! Rabbit! is told through a conversation between two people who come upon a creature. One of the people is convinced they are seeing a duck; the other a rabbit. On each page, the duck/rabbit illustration is the same, large, white, outlined in bold black, but the foreground or background pages with each spread, until maybe, just maybe the observers see something different.
Duck! Rabbit! is a funny presentation of how peo ...more
Duck! Rabbit! is a funny presentation of how peo ...more

We don't see the narrators of the book. All we see of them is their conversation as they debate the exact taxonomy of the strange creature pictured on the cover. Is it a duck getting a drink of water? Or a rabbit cooling his ears? Maybe the duck wading in the swamp - or is that a rabbit hopping through the grass?
The language is very simple, which makes it ideal both for reading to a small child or for an early reader to read to you. My niece was able to read it prior to starting the first grade, ...more
The language is very simple, which makes it ideal both for reading to a small child or for an early reader to read to you. My niece was able to read it prior to starting the first grade, ...more

This is a children's book that plays with the idea that shapes can be ambiguous. An early 20th Century psychologist, Jastrow, invented the figure that looks like the head of a duck and/or the head of a rabbit (the duck's beak being the rabbit's ears). This was popularized by Wittgenstein's use of it in his Philosophical Investigations, in the course of a discussion of seeing something AS something--what exactly IS the difference between seeing this as a rabbit and seeing it as a duck? The figure
...more

now when i'm in a store with ellie and she ducks behind something to hide from me I just say, "Duck!" and I hear a little "Rabbit" come back at me. I know I've met a fellow children's lit reader when the exchange draws a knowing smile. A cute introduction to optical illusion sort of drawings.
...more

Want to start a conversation with young children about people having different points of view? This is the book. Fun and funny, and a fabulous ending.

Feb 24, 2020
Abigail
rated it
liked it
Recommends it for:
Readers Looking for Picture-Books Exploring Perspective & Visual Orientation
Shelves:
picture-books,
young-artists
Author Amy Krouse Rosenthal and illustrator Tom Lichtenheld team up in this amusing picture-book examination of perspective, as two unseen narrators argue about whether the creature before them is a duck or a rabbit. It all depends upon how you look at it, as it happens...
Justly praised as a means of explaining differing perspectives and opinions to younger children, I think Duck! Rabbit! also works very well as an exploration of visual orientation. It's an interesting thing, how one "reads" an ...more
Justly praised as a means of explaining differing perspectives and opinions to younger children, I think Duck! Rabbit! also works very well as an exploration of visual orientation. It's an interesting thing, how one "reads" an ...more

A FUN READ!
So cute to watch Meghan Markle read this book to lil' Archie on video! Although Archie's attention span went out the door quickly, it was so precious to see him happily flip the pages! ...more
So cute to watch Meghan Markle read this book to lil' Archie on video! Although Archie's attention span went out the door quickly, it was so precious to see him happily flip the pages! ...more
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SHORT BIO:
Amy Krouse Rosenthal was.
She divided her time.
NOT SO SHORT BIO:
Amy Krouse Rosenthal was a person who liked to make things.
Some things she liked to make include:
Children's books. (Little Pea, Spoon, DuckRabbit)
Grown-up books. (Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life)
Short films. (The Beckoning of Lovely, The Money Tree)
Guided journals. (The Belly Book)
Something o ...more
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