Thump, Quack, Moo: A Whacky Adventure by Doreen Cronin, Betsy Lewin (Illustrator)

From the Publisher

It's time for the annual Corn Maze Festival.

The farm is bursting with activity.

Cluck
Whack!

The chickens build a fence around the cornfield.

Moo
Thwack!

The cows give the barn a fresh coat of paint.

Thump. Quack!

Duck builds the ticket booth for the hot-air balloon ride.

Everyone is excited. Well, Duck is not excited exactly. But he has a plan. As Farmer Brown designs the corn maze for the festival, Duck does some designing of his own. Guess who's in for a big surprise?

The always-creative, always-hilarious, always-champions-of-corn-mazes pair who brought you Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type; Giggle, Giggle, Quack; and Duck for President have planned a terrific event. Step right up, folks.

Publishers Weekly

It's another interspecies battle of wits-and read-aloud winner-from a celebrated duo. This time, Farmer Brown is trying to put together a fabulous Statue of Liberty corn maze. But the ever-subversive Duck has different ideas-and given that he also owns night-vision goggles and a glow-in-the-dark ruler, it's not surprising whose artistic vision triumphs. This entry is more goofy than satiric-it's closer in spirit to Dooby Dooby Moo than Duck for President. But it also proves that this team continues to operate in top form. Lewin is especially good here: her bold, loosely rendered watercolors continue to find new comic depths in the obsessive, cranky Duck (the scenes drawn from the perspective of his night-vision goggles are a hoot). And the subsidiary characters garner plenty of giggles, too. Ages 3-7. (Sept.)

Children's Literature

This book returns readers to beleaguered Farmer Brown and the animals from Click, Clack, Moo… and the sequels. Farmer Brown is excitedly preparing a Statue of Liberty corn maze for the annual Corn Maze Festival and needs all the animals to help. With some inducements, he gets the chickens to build the fence. The cows paint the barn. They begin to get excited as well. Even Duck is persuaded to build the ticket booth for the hot air balloon ride. The mice, meanwhile, are studying the weather. Farmer Brown carefully cuts his maze, but what is sneaky Duck busy with in the cornfield at night? At last the big day arrives. Duck goes up in the balloon with Farmer Brown to view the results of the work in the field. Readers should not be too surprised at the ending. Lewin brushes on her watercolors with strength and conviction. Her thick black lines create the barnyard and characters guaranteed to make us chuckle. The colors add a touch of naturalism: red barn and bandana, green corn plants, yellow duckbill, and so forth, with plenty of white page. This is an extended cartoon, a sequence of scenes that build to the climax as we open the final foldout. Reviewer: Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz

School Library Journal

K-Gr 4

Duck and his comical cohorts return in another zany tale. Farmer Brown plans a Statue of Liberty maze for the annual Corn Maze Festival, enlisting (by bribe and threat) the reluctant help of his animal friends to see the project through. Before long, the chickens are constructing a fence, the cows are painting the barn, and Duck-curmudgeon extraordinaire-is furiously hammering out a ticket booth. As Farmer Brown busily sketches, measures, and mows by day, Duck keeps equally busy, sneaking into the cornfield every night armed with night-vision goggles, glow-in-the-dark ruler, and hedge clippers. Although the animals' various endeavors don't turn out as expected (the disasters are humorously depicted in the artwork), an undaunted Farmer Brown eagerly boards a hot-air balloon for an aerial view of his masterpiece during the opening ceremony. Along for the ride, a smug Duck is able to witness the man's priceless reaction to the nighttime design changes, which readers can view on a two-page fold-up. Once again, Cronin and Lewin get everything right, from the perfectly paced deadpan narrative, to the amusing characterizations, to the vibrant brush and watercolor cartoons that play off and extend the text's humor. Throughout the tale, the farm mice, who are taking a meteorology correspondence course, present weather-prediction charts that reflect the mood of the plot, gradually building from partly sunny skies to stormy climax. Fans will not be disappointed.-Joy Fleishhacker , School Library Journal

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