Duck for President by Doreen Cronin, Betsy Lewin (Illustrator)

From Barnes & Noble

The Barnes & Noble Review
The talented team who brought you the Caldecott Honor winner Click, Clack, Moo turn their sights on politics in this knee-slapping picture book starring a duck with designs on public office.

Back on the farm, Duck is fed up with chores that leave him "picking tiny bits of grass and espresso beans out of his feathers." So with a sign that reads "Farmer Brown Must Go! Farm Election Tomorrow!" the ambitious bird throws his hat in the ring, launching a remarkably successful political career. After winning the barnyard election, Duck realizes that his situation hasn't improved, and he decides to turn his attention to the governorship -- and the presidency. As it turns out, our web-footed friend has a positive gift for campaigning. He connects with voters through pancake breakfasts, parades, and television appearances and lands himself in the Oval Office! Sound like a great job? "'Running the country is no fun at all,'" thinks Duck, and with the "help" of a help-wanted ad, he peacefully retires to do what all great presidents do to preserve their legacy.

Cronin and Lewin's tale is just the ticket for lighthearted inspiration and serious laughter. Clever illustrations of Duck striking presidential poses -- including a tongue-in-cheek scene of him pondering his "fowl" fate in rough times -- are simply hysterical, making this a silly read for young kids and an even funnier one for more sophisticated types. No quacks about it, our vote goes to this dynamic duck. Matt Warner

From the Publisher

My fellow Americans:

It is our pleasure, our honor, our duty as citizens to present to you Duck for President. Here is a duck who began in a humble pond. Who worked his way to farmer. To governor. And now, perhaps, to the highest office in the land.

Some say, if he walks like a duck and talks like a duck, he is a duck.

We say, if he walks like a duck and talks like a duck, he will be the next president of the United States of America.

Thank you for your vote.

Publishers Weekly

As the run-up to the 2004 presidential election gathers momentum, it appears that George W. Bush may have more than Democrats on his tail. Duck, the ever-scheming star of Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type has thrown his feathers in the ring. Fed-up with the drudgery of his barnyard chores, Duck decides to officially buck authority and hold an election to determine who should be in charge. The web-footed wonder narrowly defeats Farmer Brown, but soon discovers that running a farm is not all it's cracked up to be. Duck plans a move to greener pastures by entering-and eventually winning-the race for governor. However, for the ambitious feathered hero, only the highest office in the land will do, and he charts a course for the Oval Office, which also has its drawbacks. Though Cronin's latest Duck tale introduces the basic mechanics of the election process, it lacks many of the silly high jinks and clever plot turns that gave its predecessors their charm. A few nods to past presidents appear in both text and art (Nixon, Clinton, G.H.W. Bush), offering older readers a knowing wink. The focus on Duck's dissatisfaction and loneliness at the top makes the story line perhaps better suited to adults, even as Lewin's chunky-outlined watercolors continue to cater to the younger crowd with her usual dashes of humor and daffy sweetness. Her depictions of the campaign-trail motorcades, parades and town meetings are a hoot. All ages. (Mar.) FYI: The book will have a March 2 laydown date. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Susie Wilde - Children's Literature

Duck showed he was shrewd and politically savvy in Caldecott Honor winning, Click, Clack Moo Cows that Type and its sequel, Giggle, Giggle Quack. When he tires of grinding the farmer's espresso beans, he decides it is time to run for head of the farm. It is no surprise that he crushes the farmer in the farm election. The surprise comes when, despite missing ballots, recounts show Duck narrowly defeating the governor and then, the President of the United States. Duck has a surprise, too. He soon realizes running states and countries is not much fun and heads back to the farm, content to write his autobiography. This book is filled with adult-pleasing references of sticky missing ballots and playing the saxophone on late-night television. Seriously, folks, this book leads not only to chuckles, but to aptly describing the burden of chores connected to glorious offices. 2004, Simon & Schuster, Ages 5 up.

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 2-This award-winning team returns with a third story of farm animals with ambition. Duck is tired of doing his chores (mowing the lawn and grinding the coffee beans), and decides to hold an election to replace Farmer Brown. When he wins, Duck quickly realizes that running a farm requires too much hard work, and sets out to run for governor. With the help of the hens, and speeches "that only other ducks can understand," he eventually ends up running the country. Executive office gives him a headache, however, so Duck returns to the farm to work on his autobiography-on a computer, with the typewriter from Click, Clack, Moo (S & S, 2000) in the wastepaper bin next to him. Lewin's characteristic humorous watercolors with bold black outlines fill the pages with color and jokes. Cronin's text is hilarious for kids and adults and includes a little math and quite a bit about the electoral process. The animals, who have no verbal language that humans can understand, are empowered by the use of the written word, and the subliminal message comes through loud and clear-one can almost hear youngsters thinking, "Watch out grown-ups! Just wait till I learn to read."-Jane Barrer, Washington Square Village Creative Steps, New York City Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Just in time for an election year, the feathered troublemaker of Click, Clack, Moo (2000) and Giggle, Giggle, Quack (2002) enters the political arena, with sidesplitting results. Weary of chores, Duck organizes a farmyard election and ousts Farmer Brown-only to discover that running a farm is harder than it looks. So Duck moves on, campaigning first for Governor, than President, and winning each time by, well, a nose. Lewin follows Cronin's lead in losing no opportunity to lampoon recognizable political figures. Seeing Duck flash a two-fisted "V For Victory" sign, edge out a decidedly Hillary-esque gubernatorial incumbent, play saxophone on late-night TV, and lean wearily on the presidential desk may amuse grownups more than children-but the comedy flows freely on more levels than one, and there's sufficient hilarity for all. Seeing the error of his ways, Duck finally returns to the farm, and is last seen working not on chores, but, graduating from typewriter to computer, his memoirs. All things considered, he has plenty to write about. (Picture book. 6-8)

Product Details

• Interviews & Essays

Interviews & Essays

Doreen, you have given up your career as an attorney in order to take up writing children's books full-time. What inspired you to make this unusual career change?

Doreen Cronin: I actually enjoyed practicing law, but after Click, Clack, Moo had been out for about a year, it became really difficult to juggle both careers. I wanted to do more book signings, I wanted to visit classrooms, and I wanted to go to the American Library Association conferences and Book Expo America. Also, kids who wanted to write me letters started to track me down at the law firm. I'd be sitting at my desk going through motions and briefs, and a stack of first-grade Duck drawings would land on my desk. I knew it was time to go! Actually, some day I'd like to go back to practicing law, but that will be a few years from now.

Doreen, have any of your past cases served as inspiration for your books?

DC: As soon as I figure out a way to incorporate reinsurance litigation into a picture book, I'll let you know.

Doreen, you have said that one of your late father's many legacies was his sense of humor. How has his legacy influenced your writing style?

DC: For the record, I am nowhere near as funny as my dad. If my dad was writing picture books today, I'd still be practicing law! Someone asked me recently if anyone else in my family was a writer. The technical answer is no, but my father was an amazing storyteller. Because he was a police officer, every day was a new story!

Betsy, you began your career as a freelance greeting card illustrator and then began writing and illustrating stories for children's magazines. How did you come to be a children's book illustrator?

Betsy Lewin: An editor at Dodd, Mead & Co. saw a poem that I wrote and illustrated for a magazine and asked me to expand it into a thirty-two-page counting book titled Cat Count. I've been doing children's books ever since, and loving it.

Betsy, did you always know that you wanted to be an artist?

BL: I always knew I wanted to be an artist. My parents said I was born with a pencil in my hand.

Duck, how did you begin your career as a duck on Farmer Brown's farm?

Duck: As an egg; then I moved up.

Doreen, many times an author and illustrator do not meet during the publishing process. When did you meet Betsy for the first time?

DC: I can't remember exactly the first time. But after Click, Clack, Moo was published, Betsy and her husband, Ted, invited my husband and me to their home in Brooklyn and we went out for dinner. A good time was had by all!

Betsy, how has your collaborative process changed since you and Doreen first began working together?

BL: Doreen and I didn't know each other until after Click, Clack, Moo was published. We freely exchanged ideas during the making of Giggle, Giggle, Quack, which I found to be helpful to the book, plus it was a lot of fun. Doreen is very funny. Our senses of humor just seem to click.

Duck, Click, Clack, Moo received the Caldecott Honor and was a New York Times best-seller. Have you won any awards on the farm?

D: Best-Looking and Most Likely to Be Arrested.

Doreen, you collect antique typewriters. Do you use them to write your children's books?

DC: I don't have that kind of stamina! I write longhand and on the computer.

Duck, when we first met you in Click, Clack, Moo, you used a typewriter. In Giggle, Giggle, Quack you relied on a pencil and in Duck for President you use a computer to type your autobiography. Which do you prefer? Do you surf the Internet?

D: I'd prefer a wi-fi laptop, but I haven't been able to convince the boss yet. I used to surf the Net, but Farmer Brown pulled the plug after I ordered 100 copies of Animal Farm.

Betsy, you and your husband, illustrator Ted Lewin, love to travel and often visit exotic places to do research for your books. What is your favorite place to travel to?

BL: We've been to Africa and India the most times, so they're highest on the list so far.

Duck, what is your favorite vacation spot?

D: Cabo San Lucas. Fun, sun, and deep-sea fishing.

Doreen and Betsy, did you have any childhood pets?

DC: We had dogs.
BL: I had a number of dogs and cats -- nothing exotic. My favorite was a cat my father named Ajax because he played with an Ajax cleanser can. I did love Trippy, a dog who barked at everybody but the dog catcher. Sport was my first pet -- a cranky little fox terrier who chased his tail. Loved him, too.

Doreen and Betsy, did you spend any time on a farm while you were growing up?

DC: No. But when I was a reporter covering an agriculture show for my college newspaper, a cow licked my hand and I almost fainted.
BL: Yes. My hometown of Clearfield, Pennsylvania, is surrounded by farms. I had both friends and relatives who lived on farms.

Duck, have you always had political aspirations?

D: Doesn't everybody?

Duck, after you finish writing your autobiography, what will you do next?

D: I'll be taking over for Robert Novak on Crossfire.