Giggle, Giggle, Quack

Farmer Brown and his independent-minded animals return in this hilarious follow-up to Click, Clack, Moo, where they made their debut. As the farmer prepares to go on his vacation, he leaves instructions for his brother Bob on how to care for the animals, little dreaming that scheming Duck has taken a hand in matters, substituting his own instructions. Soon the animals are enjoying pizza parties, bubble baths, and movie night...

Like its predecessor, Giggle, Giggle, Quack pairs an amusing tale of animal shenanigans from author Doreen Cronin with humorously expressive artwork from illustrator Betsy Lewin. Appropriately enough, given the title, I found myself giggling quite a bit as I read the story, and although quite aware of who the show more culprit was, when it came to the miscommunication between Farmer Brown and his brother, I still enjoyed watching events unfold. The target audience here will no doubt feel the same, appreciating being in on the joke. Recommended to anyone who has read and enjoyed Click, Clack, Moo, as well as to anyone looking for barnyard stories with a silly sense of humor. show less

I adore this book even more than it's predecessor, Click, Clack, Moo. Just when Farmer Brown thought he had regained control of the Farm and can leave for a vacation, Duck outsmarts him - again - this time by manipulating the rather dim but well-intentioned City Cousin who's been brought in to watch over the Flocks and Herds. Once again, Lewin's images are both gorgeous and delightfully smile provoking, and once again, Cronin's work can be enjoyed as a simple picture books with some great laughs (I particularly love the page on the Sound of Mooooosic) or it can be used (as I have used it) to demonstrate elements of manipulation of information, aspects of prejudice between rural and urban lifestyles and leadership.

After reading this book, I was very pleased with the story. I liked this book for two main reasons. I found the characters to be incredibly entertaining. For the other farm animal books, I was already familiar with how cunning Duck could be, and this book managed to take his funny personality one step further. In this book, the animals mess with Farmer Brown’s brother, Bob, by writing nots “from Farmer Brown” to give them special treatment, like pizza and movies. Duck is, of course, the mastermind behind the operation, and I appreciated getting to see even more of his mischievous side. I also really liked the illustrations, as I always do when they’re by Betsy Lewin. In this book, I appreciated how bright and colorful the show more backgrounds were. I also really enjoyed how she, again, made the animals look so realistic and human when it was just them, and then completely innocent when Bob was around. It really added an additional level to the book, as it showed me that all of the animals were in on the joke. The message of this book is expressed by Bob—always be wary, and heed advice given to you. Maybe if Bob listened to that, he would not have gotten fooled by Duck. show less

This was a very cute book, and I liked it. I liked that the illustrations gave clues to what was happening in the story before the text explained it. For example, you can see Duck with a pencil, so you can predict that he's the one writing the silly notes, but it isn't apparent in the text until the last page. I also liked that the animals were personified. Ducks can't actually write, but by having the duck writing notes, the hens eating pizza, and the cows watching a movie with popcorn, it makes the book very funny and adds to its genre of modern fantasy. The main idea of this story is to be weary of those you are warned about, because they just may outsmart you!

In my opinion, this is an enjoyable book. First, the illustrations enhance the story by revealing details to the reader that are not described in the text of the story. For example, the text describes that when Farmer Brown goes on vacation, he leaves his brother Bob in charge of the farm with written instructions for how to take care of the animals, but he also warns Bob about the mischievous duck. In the pictures, the reader notices that Duck finds a pencil lying on the ground and in the following pages, Bob receives strange handwritten instruction about taking care of the animals like feeding the chickens pizza, giving the pigs bubble baths, and allowing the cows to watch a movie. Meanwhile, in the background of each picture, the show more reader can spot Duck and some of the other animals discussing their demands and writing new notes. I also enjoyed the author’s use of descriptive language and repetition because this make the story more engaging. For instance, each time Bob follows the unusual requests on the notes, the author includes dialogue of giggles and animal noises. More specifically, as Bob reads the first note describing that the chickens should be feed pizza with anchovies, the text says “Giggle, giggle, cluck,” which shows the reader that the chickens were the ones who told Duck what to write in this particular note.

The big idea of the story is that appearances can be misleading. Each day, Bob thought he was reading the care instructions that Farmer Brown left behind. However, by the end of the book, Bob realizes that Duck was writing the letters this whole time and has been making all of the unusual requests on behalf of the other animals. show less

This book is a good example of a modern fantasy. The storyline is totally unbelievable, but because of the way it is written the story becomes believable and we buy into the story line as readers. The time and place is made up by the author, but we get into the story and want to find out what is going to happen next. Plot in this story is a person vs. society. It is farmer Bob versus all the animals and for the whole book full of conflict the animals are always winning. Farmer Bob never has a single moment where he is ahead. The animals just totally take advantage of him.

Level: Primary

Giggle, Giggle, Quack by Doreen Cronin is a very cute book for kids. The illustrations are very good and show the playfulness of the farm animals. Even though this book isn't educational, it's very entertaining to see how mischievous the duck is in the story. The farmer leaves his brother in charge of the farm and tells him to watch the duck since he is bad. It's funny to see the brother read and follow the directions of the notes that he thought his brother left him. We can see that behind the brother; duck is always there with a pencil in his mouth. The illustrations really made the story great when we got to see how pampered the animals were as they were able to pull off the mischief.