You Can’t Have Too Many Friends! by Mordicai Gerstein (review)

Duck is an expert jelly bean farmer, and when the king (a rotund boy with a mop of black hair and an “I’m the King” t-shirt) demands a loan of the harvest, he is honored to comply. Time passes, and when the beans have yet to be returned, Duck sets off to reclaim them (“Quack, quack, quack!/ Quack, quack, quack!/ I’m off to get/ my jelly beans back!”). Along the way he meets a motley cast of creatures—Dog, Lady Ladder, Babbling Brook, and a group of wasps—who magically shrink and hop into his pocket. Following Duck’s poor reception at the castle, each of the friends jumps out in true size to help Duck triumph against the trials put to him by the king’s mother; in the end, the repentant boy king arrives with a dump truck full of jelly beans and an apology. Based on the French fairy tale “Drakestail,” this contemporary retelling offers both a child-centered treasure (jelly beans!) and a happier ending, since the final spread finds the duck and the boy king surrounded by friends eating jelly beans together. The story is effectively paced, with repetition solidly moving the tale along and humorous moments adding chuckles along the way. The great draw here is Duck’s charming naïveté; he never once suspects foul play as he is repeatedly put in precarious positions, each time rising above it all and jovially knocking on the castle door again. While the illustrations (in pen and ink, acrylic, and colored pencil) include Gerstein’s familiar blues and aquas and his lively draftsmanship, they’re more streamlined than some of his immersive works, with lots of white space setting off the sweet jelly-bean tones of the vignettes; copious speech bubbles add immediacy (and also opportunities for dramatic interpretation). Young listeners will appreciate this quirky friendship tale and champion the relentlessly optimistic Duck.