by Moe Zilla

Created on: August 15, 2010

First there was "Click, Clack, Moo," and then its sequel with a duck - "Click, Clack, Quackity-Quack".) And then, of course, there was "Giggle, Giggle, Quack" - identified as a "companion" book to the others. The poor farmer had received type-written demand letters from his cows, and then later from his ducks.  (And one duck even got himself elected President of the United States!) Perhaps appropriately, the first line of this book tells us that "Farmer Brown keeps a very close eye on his animals…"

"Dooby, dooby moo, the cows snore."

"Fa la, la, la baaaa… the sheep snore."

I love the illustrations by Betsy Lewin. There's a wild unpredictability in the rough edges of her brush and watercolor drawings. But she always manages to give personalities to the animals, drawing their faces with curious and enthusiastic expressions. She uses interesting colors for the shading - a bright blue for the moonlight night, which makes the side of the red barn appear as a lavender purple. And when the farmer takes his animals to the county fair, there's a beautiful, soft purplish glow in the dusky sky, lit up by a yellow and red ferris wheel…

Farmer Brown knew his animals were up to something (again), when he saw they'd clipped an ad from his morning newspaper. For some reason, his cows are singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," and just like in the previous books, the animals are all, magically, performing the impossible. The white backgrounds give a cheerful brightness to the illustrations, and provide broad clean pages for the book's occasionally-tilted text. But when the animals are speaking, the bold black letters are replaced with handwritten scribbles.

"Dooby, dooby, dooby moo.
Dooby moo, moo, moo, moo, moo…"

The sheep rehearse "Home on the Range." The ducks insist that they try it again, "with more feeling." The pigs perform an interpretive dance. And I love the illustration of the pretentious pig in the front, bowing with his eyes closed dramatically while he raises one leg in the air!

The story milks the humor in this premise - pun intended - by providing frequent glimpses of the poor, confused farmer. He presses his ear against the barn - and still hears "Dooby, dooby moo…" And when they all get to the county fair, the animals ditch the farmer, then sign in at the desk for the talent show. (Signing their name as "Cows. Sheep. Pigs.") And it turns out each animal has prepared a number for the talent.

 The duck even sings "Born to Be Wild…"

Learn more about this author, Moe Zilla.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.