Freak369's Full Review: Doreen Cronin - Duck for President
Sometimes kids books are more entertaining for adults than their target audience. For me its having the ability to grab something off the shelf, read it in about ten minutes and come away from it with a huge silly grin on my face. Books like Click, Clack, Moo – Cows That Type and Minnie And Moo Meet Frankenswine are just a few examples of the almost hundred kids books I’ve collected over the years. Sure the kids that come to visit might sit down and make use of them but most of these are ones that I purchased for a good laugh, because they were too cute to pass up or I was hooked on other things the author wrote. The same people that wrote and illustrated “Click, Clack, Moo – Cows That Type” team up for another wonderful adventure into the world of silly animals.
Duck For President
If you read “Click, Clack, Moo” then you will already be familiar with the star of this book, Duck. He doesn’t have a name so don’t feel guilty calling him Duck. Duck is a cute little quacker; he lives on the farm with the sheep, cows, chickens and other assorted farm animals. One thing he doesn’t like is the fact that Farmer Brown has chores for all them to do. His three are taking out the trash, grinding the coffee beans and cutting the grass. At the end of the day he is covered in clippings and espresso bits and that doesn’t set well with him. He wonder why they even have chores and why Farmer Brown is in charge. That’s when he gets the bright idea that there should be an election on the farm, his campaign slogan is simple, “VOTE DUCK! For a kinder and gentler farm!” This sets the farmer off and the expression on his face is truly priceless. When election day rolls around Farmer Brown is defeated, the results, Duck 20, Farmer Brown 6. he demands a recount and, with the inclusion of a missing vote that was found on the back end of a pig, the new results are no surprise. Farmer Brown 6, Duck 21.
Duck soon learned that running a farm isn’t much fun. At the end of the day he is worse off than when he only had three chores to contend with. That’s when he aims a little higher. This time he is out for the seat of the governor. Hitting the campaign trail he attends meetings, goes to the local hot spots and marches in parades … and he gives speeches that only other ducks understand. He ends up winning, but not by a huge margin. Ms. Governor 299,999, Duck 300,000. She demands a recount, the new tally is Ms. Governor 299,999, Duck 300,002; it seems two ballots were found stuck to the bottom of a plate of pancakes. Once again Duck learns that being in charge isn’t all that fun. At the end of the day he is worse off than when he was in charge of the farm! Not wanting to deal with ink stains, hair spray, coffee stains and fingerprints he seeks a higher office.
The next day Duck and his associates start working on his bid for President of the United States! He hits the campaign trail had spending his days kissing babies, riding in parades, giving speeches that only other ducks would understand and appearing on late night talk shows. All that hard work paid off in the end; Duck ended up winning the election by five votes! The President demanded a recount and surprise, surprise, ten sticky ballots were found stuck to the bottom of the Vice President. All too soon Duck learns that running the country isn’t easy. Settling back to have a moment’s peace he looks over the help wanted ads in the newspaper and sees, “duck Needed. No experience necessary. Must be able to mow the lawn and grind coffee beans”. Duck leaves the comforts of the Oval Office to go back to the farm. The book closes out with the farmer being as tired as usual after a long days work and Duck, well, he’s writing his autobiography!
My Take
Outside of the cute story there are a ton of things for adults in this book. The rips on the Vice President [having the ballots stuck to his bottom] and the illustration of Duck playing the saxophone while on late night television [Former President Bill Clinton] are just too funny. One of the best things for me is the last page when you see Duck writing his autobiography. The manual typewriter is in the trash [a tie in from Click, Clack, Moo] and the mouse is using the mouse on the computer. Be sure to read the words on the computer screen too, they are sure to fetch a giggle or two. The book does give kids a positive message – just because something is hard doesn’t mean that it is impossible so don’t give up! Thinking that there is something easier just around the corner is disproved in this book and even though most kids won’t get that type of message from it, they will come away from it thinking that their own chores aren’t so bad, especially when you put them in perspective with the events of the book.
The Bottom Line
Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin are a great team that had me rolling on the floor with “Click, Clack, Moo” and I really didn’t think that they create something that would be as entertaining. I won’t say that this is a better book because that is like trying to say an apple is better than a pear, it’s a different type of book but one that I love to death. The illustrations really bring the story to life and add a lot of things to it, Cronin could have gotten away with just the story but then you would miss out on the expressions of everyone involved in the elections, the farm animals and of course the look on Farmer Browns face when he sees that he lost out to Duck. There aren’t a lot of complex or difficult words and adults can make their way through this in about ten minutes – even if you stop and howl at the illustrations. If you liked the other books from Cronin and Lewin then consider this book a must read!
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 po...More at HotBookSale
From the author of Click, Clack, Moo, here is a duck who began in a humble pond. Who worked his way to farmer, to governor, and now, perhaps, to the h...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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