By: Marjorie Flack and Kurt Wiese
1933
The story about Ping is a great children's book. I remember reading this book several times as a young child in the 1970's. The setting of the story is the Yangtze river in China. A little duck named Ping lives on a boat on the river with his several family members including parents, siblings, aunts, uncles and forty-two cousins. Each morning, Ping and his family leave the boat to hunt for food, and every night they return. The last duck onto the boat gets a spanking, so Ping always tries not to be last.
One day, Ping realizes that he will be the last one on the boat, and so, rather than getting spanked, he hide by the river all night. When he tries to return to the boat in the morning, the boat is nowhere in sight. Eventually, Ping notices that a small boy has fallen off a houseboat. The boy holds onto Ping when his family pulls him back onto the boat. The boy’s father traps Ping in a basket so that they can cook him for dinner later. However, before this can happen, the boy frees Ping from the basket and helps him back into the river. The end of the story finds Ping returning to his family –even though he is the last one on the boat that day and must suffer the "last one on board" spanking.
Sample Question:
- Why does Ping think boats have eyes?
- How did it make you feel when the ducks get spanked?
- What do you think of the Chinese culture?
Activities and Discussions:
- Using construction paper create Ping's boat.
- Create a chart of all types of fish a duck may catch.
- Look up videos online of fishing ducks and discuss how to train a duck to fish.
About the Author:
Illustrator:
Other books written by Marjorie Flack:
Reference:
Flack, M., & Wiese, K. (1933). The story about Ping. New York, NY: [Viking Press].
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