'It's Quacking Time!'

Preliminary and final artwork by Jill Barton for 'It's Quacking Time!', written by Martin Waddell (Walker, 2005).

At the time of deposit, Jill Barton provided the following contextual note with the artwork for 'It's Quacking Time!': "Quite interesting to note that the ducks were originally Mallards. Quacking Time is essentially a book that stays in one place. We never move far from the little nesting island in the lake. The illustrations hang on the body language of the duck family to get the lovely warmth of Martin's story across. They had to be clearly read, hence the decision to go with white ducks. The ducks have to be ducks, no anthropomorphic items of clothing to identify male, female, old, young and even younger. The only 'gimmick' I allowed myself, in order to identify the characters, was slightly different colours for their beaks, legs and feet."

For draft material relating to the writing of 'It's Quacking Time!', see the Martin Waddell Collection, file MW/02/51.