Does Donald Duck Have What It Takes to Be a TV Star?

There’s something very appealing about the thought of being on TV. My time on the air has been mostly limited to seeing my face on the screen at the CROP Walk or some other large event where you might be able to pick my face out of a crowd of hundreds. I was actually interviewed once when I attended a local memorial service for Pope John Paul II, but that’s pretty much the extent of my television experience. Still, I understand the excitement that grips Donald when a TV crew starts filming a show nearby in Donald Duck, TV Star!

In this Golden Easy Reader by Mary Carey, Donald has much bigger things in mind than a ten-second spot on the evening news. He wants to be an actor. And when he finds out that what this show needs is a stunt driver, he wants to be a daredevil. But can he really handle those curves, or is he headed for failure? I’ve always loved Donald Duck books, largely because he is always getting himself into ridiculous messes, so it should be apparent right from the get-go that Donald’s road to super-stardom will not be an easy one. The chiming of his nephews’ warnings does not increase the reader’s confidence in him.

Most of the action in this book hinges on the unlikely premise that Donald could simply walk up to a TV producer and say, “Hey, I know how to drive a stunt car!” and have him hand him the keys. Nobody’s going to take that kind of chance on some guy who just came up out of nowhere, especially when there is an expensive racecar at stake. There’s also the fact that he simply tells Donald to drive and starts filming, so Donald has no idea where he’s supposed to be going. In a real TV show, a scene like this would be carefully planned out.

Aside from that, however, this is a fun story demonstrating that dreaming about doing something and actually doing it are two very different things, and sometimes the gap between them can’t be closed. Huey, Dewey and Louie know that making a television show is hard work. Donald likes the glamour and fun of TV but isn’t prepared for what he’ll need to do in order to become a star. There’s a lesson in there about having realistic expectations and a strong work ethic, but mostly, this is just a fun story that offers the chance to see Donald Duck crashing into things. It’s not Blues Brothers territory since he mostly has a clear path, but there’s still concern over how he is going to stop this car that he can’t control and whether he will get hurt in the process.

Donald Duck, TV Star! was written with first- and second-graders in mind, and the sentences are crafted to be easy for those in that age range. The book is very repetitive. Several successive sentences will use the same structure or will refer back to something that was said earlier, echoing it or closely mimicking it. Most of the sentences contain only a few short words. For instance, during Donald’s driving stint, we see two repetitions, with slight variations, of “The car raced down the street. It went very fast. It went faster. ‘Too fast!’ cried Donald.” This helps with ease of reading and allows kids to anticipate what is coming next.

The easy writing and the colorful pictures featuring familiar characters acting in expected ways make Donald Duck, TV Star! a fun story for young readers. While it won’t teach them much about the television industry, it will take them for an entertaining ride.