Oona is not a running duck. Bim, Bam and Bop are always racing ahead. That’s when Oona decides to play to her strengths.
Bim, Bam, Bop… and Oona by Jacqueline Briggs Martin and illustrated by Larry Day is a simple story with a classic message. The book was published in 2019, but this past year it got the green light from the University of Minnesota Press for a paperback run. "Paperback books do get around a little more," says the author. "I think the publisher puts into paperback the books that they would like to have as large an audience as possible."
The tale takes place on a farm and was inspire by a group of ducks that seemed to run around in a tight-knit pack. Inspiration also came from the author's grandchildren. "The younger one always wanted to do what the older one could do," says Martin regarding her grandchildren. "And they [couldn't] do it because they're just younger and their legs aren't as long, or their coordination isn't as good." This idea of a younger sibling trying to keep up was applied to the group of running ducks.
The watercolor illustrations were provided by Larry Day. After a reading of the text, Day approached Martin with an enthusiasm for offering the visuals to the book. "I loved every one of his sketches," says Martin of the ingenuity that Day brought to the story. Being slower than her fellow ducks, Oona takes to working with gismos. "The text really doesn't describe the gismos; those all were added by Larry."
Bim, Bam, Bop... and Oona can be purchased at most bookstores and online.
Minnesota Reads is produced at The North 103.3 with funding provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.