Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Duck is sulking and stomping around the farmyard with highly expressive orange feet. Her grumpiness is justified in one respect-the pond has dried up, so there's no paddling-but otherwise it's self-indulgent. She claims she has no one to play with, even though her friends are the very definition of solicitous (Goat, who is munching on the laundry hung out to dry, even offers to share a shirt snack). Duck just gets grumpier, peering down her pointy beak with scorn and disdain as a gray cloud that's been forming over her head grows bigger and bigger, turning "blue and purple and yellow until it was BLACK!" and putting everyone in a foul mood (Tortoise decides "to stay in his shell forever and ever"). HorA¡cE+ek, usually a solo act, makes a winning team with Dunbar (Pat-a-Cake Baby), her brisk, direct prose providing sufficient personality and emotional momentum to match his gorgeously textured animal portraits: a radiantly pink pig wallows in brocadelike crimson mud; a rooster is a riot of copper and emerald feathers. A glorious, giddy group rain dance-and homage to "Singin' in the Rain"-closes the book, showing that no cloud or mood can stay dark forever. Ages 3-7. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-Duck is grumpy because the pond is dry and she has no one to play with. When she complains to several animals, they each invite her to play with them. Dog suggests they dig holes. "Digging holes would make my feathers dirty," says Duck. She refuses Pig's offer to play in his "gloopy puddle," because ducks don't like gloop. Duck would rather quack than join Rooster in a "cockadoodle chorus." She calls Rabbit silly for proposing a hopping contest, finds Tortoise's offer to doze together boring, and refuses to eat clothes with Goat. With each rejection, the small black cloud over Duck's head enlarges until it becomes so "ginormous" that now all the animals are grumpy. Not to worry, though. The gigantic cloud doesn't "block out the sun forever" but instead releases torrents of rain. The pond fills up, and the animals, happy again, join Duck as she "splish[es]" and "splosh[es]" in the downpour. Endpapers filled with large raindrops hint at what will eventually relieve Duck's gloom. The mixed-media illustrations, all gorgeous double-page bleeds, depict an elongated duck, head bent under an ever-present cloud. The detailed renderings of each animal are large, sometimes spilling onto an opposing page until each appears shrunken in gloom under a cloud-filled sky. The animals' exuberant enjoyment of the rain and the rainbow that follows is a delightful conclusion. VERDICT Repetitive text and plenty of onomatopoeic sounds that encourage group participation make this an excellent choice for group sharing.-Marianne Saccardi, Children's Literature Consultant, Cambridge, MA © Copyright 2019. 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 Horn Book Review
A dried-up pond and a perceived lack of playmates have Duck in such a grumpy mood that a little gray cloud has formed over her head. She complains about the situation to each animal she meets, and though they all invite her to join them in whatever they are doing (Rooster was cockadoodlingSquawk! said Rooster), Duck only becomes more aggravated and more argumentative, while the cloud grows larger and darker. Now the great gray cloud was GINORMOUS! It was a great gray blob hanging low overhead, so now ALL the animals were grumpy. The art shows how the emotional discord between Duck and the other creatures pervades the atmosphere until an impressive rainstorm ensues, and a large scribbly black cloud and colorful raindrops overtake the pages. All the animals perk up in the rain shower, which culminates with a huge and vibrant rainbow highlighting a splashy, now-happy Duck. Loose lines and a variety of textures in the backgrounds create visual interest on every page. The bold, vibrant art, boisterous animal sounds, exasperating main character, and enjoyably predictable storyline can work equally well for reading one-on-one or sharing with a group. julie roach (c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A disgruntled duck brings a dark cloud upon her friends. Duck is grumpy, the pond is dry, and there's nobody to play with. A little gray cloud forms above her head, matching her mood. Though friends suggest activities to smooth her ruffled feathers, she rudely turns up her bill at digging holes with Dog or munching laundry with Goat, and she "just [doesn't] do cockadoodling." With each snub and each animal's retort (including Pig's out-of-place "honked" oink), Duck's cloud swells until it's "BLACK" and "GINORMOUS" and everybody's grumpy, demonstrating the cumulative effect of taking anger out on others. Just as it threatens to blot out the sun forever, it bursts with a "SPLATT PLITTER PLATT" into "MILLIONS OF BIG SHINY WET SPLASHY RAINDROPS," conveniently remedying Duck's initial complaint. The animals burst into a waddling, barking, cockadoodling rendition of "Singin' in the Rain," and Duck exits under a double-page rainbow, her rudeness apparently forgotten. The author's storm metaphor is simultaneously clichd and unclear. Though the exuberant downpour may symbolize that "GLOOM cloud[s]" pass, its literal gratification of Duck's griping may imply that bad moods are good reasons to be unkinda message caregivers won't appreciate. Horcek's bold, textured mixed-media illustrations pop, but his animated critters can't save the text's muddled moral.To wash away a stubborn case of the grumps, skip this and pick up Claire Messer's Grumpy Pants (2016) instead. (Picture book. 4-6) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
