Usually I prefer to review picture books as a group, but my grandson loved “Beaky Barnes and the Devious Duck” by Caldecott Honor winner David Ezra Stein so much that he insisted on taking it home with him after reading it. When I asked him specifically what he loved about it, he said that it’s just really excellent. But he (and his grandfather) loved the humor. They loved the sneaky acts and the deviousness. They loved the characters. And they loved the plot.

This book demonstrates the power of the imagination and how the placebo effect can, in a sense, not just cure our ills, but change our lives. We can imagine ourselves as our own heroes, the heroes we always wanted to be, just by using our imaginations. We can truly get where we want to be by working hard to achieve those things. Also, every person, including the devious duck, has both very very questionable and very very wonderful qualities of character if only we allow them to emerge.

Duck gives out phony elixirs and medicines to people; and the people, after partaking of those snake oils, imagine that they can do what was promised. Duck sells the inventor a helium idea that if you drink this helium dough, it’ll make you able to fly because you’ll fly like a helium balloon. She then invents a helium product and tries it out on another character, but instead of flying, but only his voice goes up to helium heaven. Other characters imagine that they have become what they wished to be when they take the appropriate potion.

The duck has read that people can be easily fooled if you make them think that you are giving them what they really want. And he succeeds. But eventually the little devil on his shoulder is defeated by the angel that appears and appeals to duck’s better nature. So the duck, the villain, who has demonstrated how gullible the others are by how easily they fall into his traps, becomes a hero due to the angel’s influence. Devious duck, after fooling everyone, turns out to be a real hero. We can imagine that he’ll never be devious again.

The illustrations are wonderful, and humorous on their own. The characters’ appearances and behaviors reflect their character issues perfectly, and the combination of the dialogue and the graphics comprise a book that will appeal to children, but could also be discussed in a classroom setting wherein the book’s important themes could be discussed. And, of course, as in all good literature, the main character, here one very Devious Duck, changes significantly, from downright evil to “upright” heroic.

This review is based on the final, hardcover graphic novel provided by Penguin Workshop, the publisher, for review purposes.