I Am a Duck

Adиle Ashby, a library consultant, is the former editor of Canadian Materials for Schools and Libraries.

Simon is an ordinary boy with an obsession. He wants to be a duck. In
fact, he wants to be a duck so badly that he quacks in response to a
question from his teacher and ends up having to write, “I must not
quack in school” 500 times on the blackboard. Then one night, after
being hit on the head by a bookshelf full of books about his favorite
subject, he wakes up inside a dark, dark place that turns out to be an
egg. Breaking out, he discovers that he is a duck! At first, he is
delighted, until a wise old drake tells him about the hazards of his new
condition—pikes, snapping turtles, water snakes, eagles, hawks, and
hunters. Returning to his eggshell, he crawls inside and screams that he
no longer wants to be a duck. Transformed back into his normal state, he
finds he has stopped thinking about being a duck, but instead wants to
be a moose.

This circular story is accompanied by crude comic-book illustrations
that add nothing to a mediocre text.