 |
Driven by their father, Chris, eight-year-old Tim and twelve-year-old Jenny are exploring the landscape as they head to their grandparents' farmhouse in the woods. On the way, the two children display their gumption as they tread water in a somewhat perilous creek. Once they arrive at their grandparents' house, Tim and Jenny rush to play with L.D.—the family duck. However, they find that the friendly fowl has somehow disappeared. The children, upset, run back to tell Gramps. He takes his cane, gets up, a bit unsteady on his feet, promising he will show them where they'll find their playmate. But what they discover, as Gramps will confirm, is that L.D. has passed.
Settling on a bench by the creek, their elder begins a tale that will explain all that has occurred, beginning with a memory from his earlier days, when he saw a hen duck fleeing from crows and a vulture as they hovered over a nest containing eight eggs. He resolved to take the eggs home, where his mother helped him construct a box to keep them warm and safe until they successfully hatched. One duckling was crippled and couldn't walk well or swim. That was L.D., who would provide inspiration for Gramps and Grandma because of his beauty, persistence, and courage, and amusement for the family at their yearly reunions. Grandpa reveals both L.D.'s true name and the name he was given after his passing, offering a deepened spiritual element to this heart-warming saga. As the story ends, the children better understand the significant role the bird had played as a focus of family attention over many years. Their sense of attachment and admiration is strengthened as they go to the site of the duck's resting place, marked by a tombstone and three wooden crosses that bear his name.
Hoge has written a lively tale combining family recollections and transcendent themes that will undoubtedly appeal to his targeted audience of young readers. The author attained a master's degree and doctorate in veterinary medicine and pursued a practice focused on the health and care of small animals for more than fifty years, a concentration that is clearly evident in this simple but informative volume. After his retirement, he authored this book and others. L.D.'s life story is based on factual material and is presented in an engaging format that will appeal especially to young readers. It is vibrantly illustrated, with a colorful background on every page, and the characters are shown as active and appropriately emotional, their eyes particularly expressive at each juncture. In a brief introductory passage, Hoge avers that L.D.'s lively biography contains an underlying purpose: to demonstrate that even in distressing, unavoidable pain and suffering, one can yet be stirred by determination and aided by one's faith that "our Heavenly Father knows us and will not ask us to do more than we can endure." With such an uplifting message, Hoge's book can speak plainly to a youthful audience while simultaneously affecting parents and other older readers.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review