October Virtual Book Club - Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

For our October Virtual Book Club with 





we read Amy Krouse Rosenthal's book 

Duck Rabbit! 

This is a children's book that plays with the idea that shapes can be ambiguous. An early 20th Century psychologist, Jastrow, invented the figure that looks like the head of a duck and/or the head of a rabbit (the duck's beak being the rabbit's ears). The story by Amy Krouse Rosenthal is based on this charachter with the illustration of Tom Lichtenheld.

This amusing story looks at what happens when two different people look at something from different perspectives and come up with conflicting views as to what they see. In this case, the question is, “Is it a duck or a rabbit?” The reader will have to decide.

Jastrow duck-rabbit illusion

Tom Lichtenhen illustration

With this book K and L observed  a cute way to present the idea that differing views of the world can all be equally valid - an important idea for kids to grasp in this increasingly polarized world. It also teaches kids to use their imaginations to see beyond the obvious. As the "argument" is quite playful I hope I will be able to use it as a lesson with K and L when an argument arises.That is we all have a different perspective and there is no need to make an argument on different opinions.

Visit this link for an Online version of the book

After reading the book I found some 

other Optical Illusions on-line to show to the children. Here are just a few of our favourite ones.

We discussed the 3 main types of optical illusions with examples.

Reverse Illusion

You can see the picture as one thing or something else .....

Duck or Rabbit?

Old couple or mexican scene?

Wineglass or faces?

Young girl or old lady?

Moving Illusion

It seems like the picture is moving but it isn't ....

Mind Illusion

You think that something that is there is not there, or something is not there but you think it is there ...

Try to count the black spots

If you stare at the blinking pink dots, you will see only one color, pink. If you look at the the +in the center, you'll see a circle of pink dots and a rotating green dot.
Now, stare at the + without moving your eyes.

Duck Rabbit Craft

K and L created a duck rabbit craft and acted out the book between them.

Follow this Blog hop for more activities related to Amy Krouse Rosenthal books.