John Philip Duck

Bibliographic Information: Polacco, P. (2004). John Philip Duck. New York: New York. Philomel Books.
Annotation: John Philip Duck is the story of a young African American boy who begins work with his father at the hotel located within the city. One day on the way to work Edward found a young duck and decided to call it his own, considering his mother refused to care for it he had to bring it to work daily. Eventually the young duck found his way to the lobby fountain. Eventually the small duck was caught by his boss, who was not thrilled to see a duck in his lobby pond. Edward’s boss instructed Edward that he could train his duck to march into the fountain daily to the John Philip Sousa and his duck could stay. After a lot of hard work, did Edward succeed in training John Philip Duck?
Genre: Historical Fiction. Picture Book.
Grade Levels: 2-4
Readers who would like this: Patricia Polacco readers would thoroughly enjoy this story as well as students who have in fact visited the Peabody Hotel and have seen the ducks swimming in the lobby fountain themselves.
Response Rating: 2 – This was one book that I read that I did not really enjoy. I thought as though it was dragged out, I also didn’t find the plot of the story interesting or intriguing until I read the author’s note at the end of the book stating that the Peabody Hotel was a real place and in fact there are ducks swimming within the hotel’s lobby.
Question: Have you ever seen animals in the lobby of a hotel? Have you ever visited a hotel?