Synopsis: It all begins in Duck at the Door when Maxwell Duck, or Max for short, decides not to go South for the Winter. He quickly realizes that this is a mistake, and he finds shelter with the kind Irene and her brood of various animals. While Max finds living in a home takes a bit of an adjustment, soon he has settled in a little too well to the annoyance of his housemates. In Duck Soup, Max is working hard to make the perfect soup and heads off to find that last needed ingredient, but when his animal friends, Brody, Dakota, and Bebe find a feather in the soup, craziness ensues in the search for Max.
Review: I can't claim to have the same knowledge of picture books as I do of intermediate readers or YA novels, but I can tell you that I love Max the duck and all of his furry, winged and human friends. Both of thes
e books made me laugh out loud. In Duck at the Door, I was immediately drawn into the story with the first two-page spread of one lonely duck in the snow bleeding into a warm hearth scene with a crazy amount of four-legged and feathered animals. While Max is initially intimidated living inside a house, he soon learns to control the remote, cook some bizarre meals, and take up a bit too much space and make a little too much noise, irritating his friends. Just when things seem to be at a boiling point, Spring arrives, and Max returns to live with his flock. Of course, Irene and her pets soon learn that sometimes some habits are both annoying and endearing. Thankfully, Max does return to be with them again in October. Not only is the story heart-warming, but I love how Urbanovic cleverly uses white space, like on the last page, to clearly express emotion to even the youngest reader while the rest of the illustrations provide a great sense of the cacophony that would come with living with so many pets.
In Duck 
Soup, the fun continues when it appears that Max may have fallen into the soup that he was preparing. Brody the dog, Dakota the cat and Bebe the bird quickly grab a strainer in hopes of finding their dear Max. Of course, they only find potatoes, baby onions, carrot slices, and a slightly annoyed Max when he returns from the garden. Here again the illustrations are just so soft and gentle, and did you notice Brody's use of an oven-mitt when he goes to pour the soup into the strainer? Talk about a good, subtle reminder of kitchen safety. I also love how they're having pizza for dinner at the end of the book. It's a great catch on Urbanovic's part to recognize that pizza is the fall-back dinner for most families, and the best part is that they're all sitting together.
I think most readers will agree that it would be pretty great to be part of the family that Urbanovic has created in both of these books. I hope we will see more of Irene and her gang.
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