First published in 1941 by the Viking Press, the book centers on a pair of mallards who raise their brood of ducklings on an island in the lagoon in the Boston Public Garden.

In 1991, Barbara Bush gave a duplicate of this sculpture to Raisa Gorbacheva as part of the START Treaty, and the work is displayed in Moscow's Novodevichy Park.

While attending the Vesper George Art School between 1932 and 1936, he spent time in the Public Garden feeding the ducks.

Following May Massee's suggestion that he pursue additional art training, he studied for two years at the National Academy of Design.

To study ducks for the illustrations he visited the American Museum of Natural History in New York, conferred with an ornithologist and brought home six ducklings.

The mallards continue their search, flying over Boston landmarks such as Beacon Hill, the Massachusetts State House, and Louisburg Square.

In the meantime, Mrs. Mallard teaches the eight ducklings all they need to know about being ducks, such as swimming, diving, marching along, and to avoid dangers such as bicycles and other wheeled objects.

When the family must cross Beacon Street to enter the Garden, there are four policemen standing in the intersection stopping traffic to make way for the ducklings.

The lithographed illustrations, which are based on charcoal drawings, rendered in sepia,[8] rather than the traditional black-and-white pictures found in most children's books of the day, received the 1942 Caldecott Medal, and has continued to garner praise years after its first publishing.

[8] The book's message is comforting to children because it shows parents as caretakers, protectors, and teachers, and the ducklings who behave as ducks eventually find safety.

[8] According to fellow Caldecott winner Paul O. Zelinsky, "I realized that if the action in the drawings were to move from left to right, the ducks could not have been shown passing the Corner Book Shop, which is a wonderful detail in the story ...

[10] When it was first released in 1941, Ellen Buell of The New York Times called the book "one of the merriest we have had in a long time", praising the understated comedic aspect of the procession down Beacon Street, as well as McCloskey's "fine large pictures" which simultaneously demonstrate "economy of line" and "wealth of detail".

In context, the story takes place during wartime as fathers were being drafted and sent to Europe, requiring more social support for single-parent families.

[15] Based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association listed Make Way for Ducklings as one of its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children".

[5] A statue similar to the one in the Boston Public Garden was erected in Novodevichy Park in Moscow as part of the START Treaty.