especially during the home search and when Mrs. Mallard teaches the ducklings their basic skills. McCloskey also employs this page break method to heighten surprise. When searching for a home, Mr. and Mrs. Mallard seem to have found a home on page eleven. 'Good,' said Mr. Mallard, delighted that at last Mrs. Mallard had found a place that suited her. But — (p. 11) Then, they encounter a sudden problem with the chosen location when Mrs. Mallard is nearly run over by a bicyclist on page thirteen. Gender roles Make Way for Ducklings was published in the 1940s. Many books of the time portray a male-dominated society, a trend which Make Way for Ducklings does not follow. 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. McCloskey presented Mrs. Mallard as an "independent and nonsubmissive female character". This strong portrayal has led one critic to label the book as "pre-feminist". Surveys 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". In 2012 it was ranked number six among the "Top 100 Picture Books" in a survey published by School Library Journal. Cultural effects In the Boston Public Garden, where the Mallards eventually settled, a bronze statue by artist Nancy Schön has been erected of Mrs. Mallard and her eight ducklings. A statue similar to the one in the Boston Public Garden was erected in Novodevichy Park in Moscow as part of the START Treaty. The individual statues were presented by United States First Lady Barbara Bush to Russian First Lady Raisa Gorbachev as a gift to the children of the Soviet Union. Since 1978, the city has hosted an annual Duckling Day parade each spring, with children and their parents dressed as ducklings. Part of the parade route retraces the path taken by Mrs. Mallard and her ducklings to get to the Public Garden. In 2000, schoolchildren from Canton, Massachusetts, approached their state legislature to get a bill passed declaring Make Way for Ducklings the official children's book of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Legislators from Springfield, Massachusetts, blocked the bill on the grounds the official book should be by Springfield native Dr. Seuss. Legislators reached a compromise agreement to make Dr. Seuss the official children's author and Make