Review by Booklist Review
Why does Daddy read to his son every night at bedtime? It all began when the father was a child and found a duck in his refrigerator. The duck had friends, and soon the troublesome creatures caused such messes and mayhem that 1-800-DUCK-B-GONE was called. Instead of sending something scary, a box arrived with something hairy that didn't frighten the ducks but settled down alongside them on the couch for an evening of pizza and TV. Soon the house is overrun with ducks, sheep, dogs, and cows, much to the dismay of the frazzled boy. Then, a brilliant plan! He reads to the animals, which settles them down quickly. The silly, sweet story with a funny twist is illustrated digitally in bright, bold colors. The highly energetic animals are in constant motion: performing rock and roll on pots and pans and dancing under a mirrored disco ball. Much of the text appears in a typewriter font while dialogue floats overhead in speech bubbles. Moving from present to past to present, the humorous story can be paired with It Could Always Be Worse (1990), by Margot Zemach, for two stories of creative solutions for peaceful nights.--Owen, Maryann Copyright 2014 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
"Daddy, why do you always read me Mother Goose before bed?" a boy asks. The answer takes his father back to when he was a boy, and an extraordinary evening that starts with the discovery of a smart-aleck duck in the refrigerator and devolves into an rambunctious, multispecies pizza party and punfest. "Who's going to pay for all this?" Kid Dad asks frantically as pizzas arrive. "Just put it on my bill," quips the duck. Totally let down by the adult establishment (calling 1-800-Duck-B-Gone just brings more pizza-crazed, TV-watching animals), Kid Dad hits on a plan that centers on a book of Mother Goose, which enthralls the assembled crowd ("How did she fit all of those kids inside one tiny shoe?" asks a duck, amazed). Silly chaos isn't easy to choreograph, but Mack makes it look easy with his boldly outlined, broadly comic cartooning. His bespectacled, eager, and frazzled hero, who may remind adult readers of Mr. Peabody's Sherman, is instantly likeable. An ideal follow-up for kids who loved Peggy Rathmann's 10 Minutes to Bedtime. Ages 3-7. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-Most folks read Mother Goose to their kids because it's full of fun rhymes that encourage literacy development, but not the dad in this story. To answer his son's question about why they always read the collection of rhymes at bedtime, the father tells a fantastical anecdote about his own childhood. Trouble began when he found a rambunctious duck in the fridge. He was soon greeted by more ducks, who overran his entire house, got into his bed, ate all of his crackers, and then ordered pizza. When he called "1-800-DUCK-B-GONE," hoping for something to scare away the fowl creatures, a crate of sheep arrived. Subsequent efforts to get rid of the pests brought more, and bigger animals. They played cards, ordered more pizza, and watched TV, until the boy discovered that they couldn't read and calmed them down with Mother Goose tales, putting the creatures to sleep. A plethora of puns so bad they are funny, speech balloons asides, and the cartoonish hilarity of Mack's bold digital illustrations are sure to elicit many giggles. A wild and incredibly silly romp of a bedtime story that should appeal to fans of David Ezra Stein's Interrupting Chicken (Candlewick, 2010) or Doreen Cronin's classic Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type (S. & S., 2000).-Yelena Alekseyeva-Popova, formerly at Chappaqua Library, NY (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A little boy asks, "Daddy, why do you always read me Mother Goose before bed?" The question prompts a zany tale from Daddy's boyhood. Young Daddy finds a live duck in the fridge. Then three in the bathroom. Then more! The unruly critters steal his pajamas, eat all the crackers and order out for pizza. Calling 1-800-DUCK-B-GONE for something to scare the ducks awayonce, twice and thriceDaddy receives delivery of two sheep (who are hairy, not scary), three dogs and, lastly, one purportedly "scary" herd of cows. In each case, the delivered animals merely add to the chaosbonding with each other via television, card games and a wild party. Overhearing party chitchat, boy Daddy gets an idea. Maybe he doesn't need to scare the animals off to get them to cooperate. He begins to read "The Old Woman in the Shoe" and immediately captivates his listeners. "Hey, Diddle Diddle" goes down just as well. Young Daddy thus finds a solution for that difficult transition for preschoolers, from full-bore activity to bedtimeone that comes in handy with his own child, years later. Mack's digitally rendered, cartoonish pictures are characterized by grainy colors, soft-edged brown contour lines and occasional flowery motifs for textiles. Hmm, whatever did happen to all those animals, anyway? A visual joke on the last double-page spread supplies the laugh-out-loud payoff. The silly scenario and pro-books-and-reading message accentuate the appeal. (Picture book. 3-7) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
