The illustrations really make this book something special, as the story is simple and sweet and not meant to be over-analyzed. The cityscapes are great, but I particularly love how much character is packed into these lifelike ducks' poses and expressions. They neither come across too stiff nor too cartoon-like, which makes it very easy to compare these drawings to my own experiences with ducks at the local pond. I have seen Mrs. Mallard's angry face quacking at the honking cars on the faces of real ducks directed at me many times in my childhood once I had run out of snacks to offer as tribute. I would also like to mention a little shoutout to the cute "quak!" and "queep!" from two of the ducklings on that page. A very cute touch. They are trying their best and we appreciate them for it!

Obviously, this is a children's story written from the perspective of a human noticing certain behavior patterns in city ducks and should not be taken as a strictly factual manual on the animal, and I think that gives it a lot of charm as a "what if" story. I have a great fondness for birds, so this book will continue to hold a special place in my heart.

Fun fact: It has taken me my entire life up to this point to realize that the ducklings have such odd names because they are just variants of the word "quack" with the first sound alternating between the letters J, K, L, M, N, O(u), P, Q(u) so that they would remain in alphabetical order according to the order they hatched. Or at least, if I had ever noticed it as a child, that piece of trivia abandoned me and left me to read halfway through this book before I even thought to question it. Honestly, I should have questioned it a bit harder when Ouack popped out of the egg because really what kind of name is that anyway. Amazing.