Quack Quack Books

Every year, I use this book to help teach fourth graders to write letters- they really get it from this book! It's funny and appealing. I highly recommend it!

These books are so cute. Brand new and received in less than a week.

I bought this book for my grandson, age 3 1/2, based on readers' recommendations. He loves books and enjoys even long books like "Mike Mulligan" and "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs". He has a great imagination. Books he likes, he "reads" repeatedly. This book got read once and then was ignored. No questions; no comments other than "Let's read a different book". Why would anyone write a book about issuing ultimatums or even use the word in a pre-school book? I think adults will find this more amusing than children.

My grandchildren (2 and 3) have shelves of books, but this book was an instant success with my granddaughter who will be 3 in April. I had to read it to her at least twice a day during my visit. She would repeat with me click, clack moo as I was reading. She did understand that there was no milk, no eggs because the cows and hens did not get electric blankets. She liked the big drawings.

Click, Clack, Moo, Cows That Type, written by Doreen Cronin and illustrated by Betsy Lewin, won the Caldecott Award in 2001. This story is about cows typing on a typewriter and driving Farmer Brown crazy! Farmer Brown has been hearing click clack moo, click clack moo,clickety clack moo! And he is wondering cows that type? Impossible! Then, he finds notes written from a typewriter asking Farmer Brown for things the animals on the farm want. The cows and the hens want electric blankets!When Farmer Brown tells them they aren't getting what they asked for, the animals decide to go on strike. Farmer Brown has to do something about this! Duck comes by with another note from the cows saying they will give up the typewriter for the blankets. He agrees to give them the blankets in return for the typewriter. Farmer Brown thought this was a great deal! He left the blankets by the barn door and he waited all night for duck, but no typewriter! The next morning, Farmer Brown got a typewriten note from Duck! It said, the pond is quite boring, we would like a divingboard! SPLASH! Do you think they got it?
This is a funny story for people of any age! Read it when you get the chance!

My 17 month old loves ducks, so she loves this book. It is sturdy and has real life pictures that are great.

My niece just started talking and she knows her animal sounds. Quack! is one of her favorites, so this book is a big hit!

I am a librarian for my church library. I'm always looking for a good book at a reasonable price. Amazon.com helps me meet my budget. We opened the use of the church library this October to the day care located in out church. "Who says Quack?" is a great addition to the children's portion of our library! The pictures are cute (I am a sucker for duckies) and the size is easy for small hands to hold. It probably will hold up to some teeth chewing on the cover, not to my joy though. I would have preferred the pudgy book to have been a little larger for ease in processing for library identification. It would have been nice to see more inside the book before purchasing too. I cannot complain about shipping; the book arrived in a reasonable time span.

This is a good book that has real pictures of the actual animals, instead of illustrations. My husband shows it to our 19-month old daughter after reading a bedtime story. He shows her the pictures and points out things, but doesn't read it. My daughter seems to enjoy looking at the pictures.

It's a short book with few pages, but it is sturdy and we hope it will last a long time.

My daughter loved to read this book over and over again, and now my son, 15 months, picks it up and wants it read to him over and over every time he sees it. The photographs are great--I think that's why they've both loved it so much.

My 13-month-old generally has no patience for books, but she pulled this one off the shelf at the bookstore and squealed with delight. There's something about the illustrations that holds her interest, and the story has a nice rhythm for reading aloud.

This book is perfect for kids. It uses simple words, which lets you imagine everything the characters do. It uses what every children books should have. And as i say, it is Perfect!

Very pleased. It was purchased for a baby shower gift basket. Absolutely
adorable. Will purchase again for future gifts and hopefully my own grandchildren some day.

My 4 month old loves this book! We read it every night. The ducks are big and the text repetitive.
This one is by far her favorite.

Perfect for my 3-year-old: just the right amount of lines per page with double-page illustrations that are just outstanding. In this book the five ducklings leave the nest to "paddle on the water" with their Mama. Little Piddle wiggles into the water with a "sploosh." My daughter found the word sploosh so hilarious, it's now an open invitation for a tickle and has also become our family's word for a belly flop in the pool. Mama duck's mantra "you can do it, I know you can" has also proven useful.

This book is so much fun to read. It has such a wonderful rhythm and the artwork is gorgeous.

Very easy to read particularly as a bedtime story. My toddler has the refrain "Pittery, pattery, skittery, scattery ZIP round the corner came Zachary Quack" completely memorized. Very nicely illustrated as well.

My 2 boys love this book and all the Hairy Maclary books! This one is just SO cute! They are even starting to read along with me. Highly recommended!

Hairy is at it again and cuter than ever---anything in this series is great!!

I spend a lot of time reading kids books. This one is my favorite. Kids love it too!!

My toddler loves this series, they are the cutest stories and the best illustrations, well worth the time and money to get all of them in the series!

My daughter loves this book. The illustrations are beautiful & the colors are very vibrant. We read it almost every night.
She just turned one three weeks ago and she actually wanted to read it again this morning after breakfast!

My 18 month old has had this book for 7 months. She absolutely adores it. We not only read it at bedtime but whenever the mood arises. She carries the book around and would sleep with it if we let her. The story is wonderful and the pictures inside are so sweet and beautiful. My little one will sit and "read" her book through the pictures all the time. A great one to have around for bedtime. Plus it's not real wordy. The perfect bedtime read.

My favorite bedtime book for my daughter. My three-year-old now has the book memorized and "reads" it by herself before I ever get to her room. Once again, Derek Anderson brings the story to life with his brilliant, dual-page illustrations -- when the ducklings yawn, I can't help yawning myself. Perfect amount of text per page. Also helps children to not be afraid of nightime sights and sounds. Sure to become a classic, if it's not already.

This one is just too cute. Recommend without reservation.

My 3 year old grandson loves--loves this book. We already had to buy a second book because he looked at it all the time. We have all the books in this series and he can't get enough of us reading them to him. Looks like we need to get another set for Grandma & Papa's house........

The book is funny and it was funny because he hid behind his mother. His sister hid in a log. His brother hid under a lily pad. His other brother hid in a tree. ANother brother hid in the leaves. His mother found him last.

My little girl loved this book from about 9 months. She loved ducks so she was already inclined to like this book, but the cute and bright illustrations along with the fun story really captivated her. We read it over and over and a year later it still has not lost its charm on her. She is too young now for the addition and subtraction at the bottom of the pages, but I can see how they would offer an easy and fun way to learn math when she is a bit older.

My daughter loves the little Quack series - In this book, she loves little Quack's ingenious hiding spot - right behind his mama! She loves to recite the parts of the book that she remembers and really loves the pictures! We'll be reading it over and over again for many months to come, I'm sure!

Little Quack's Hide and Seek by Lauren Thompson and Derek Anderson is another sweet tale in the Little Quack series. I do love children's books, but I don't go out of my way to read them, but the sweet, lilting language of Thompson mixed with the bright, charming illustrations by Anderson have made this book a favorite in our house. It's perfect for reading quietly before bed. It's Anderson's pictures that truly make these books outstanding. They are old-fashioned and fresh all at the same time.

This book shows how foolish people have been in their quest for cures from disease and perfect health. The sad part is that it's still going on all around us and people are absolutely serious about it. Except now it's called "alternative medicine" and the government is spending taxpayers' dollars on it. Hilarious indeed!

This is a hilarious, engaging and interesting coffee table book that would make a great gift for anyone in the medical profession, or an interest in health, a skeptic, or just someone with an offbeat sense of humor!

The long wait ends for a modern book on quack medical devices! The quality is everything one might hope for and more. Excellent quality, and highly entertaining.

It might be a good thing if there were no placebo effect, because then people could quickly tell if a drug or gadget worked. But since we aren't really good judges of that (it takes complicated experiments to tell if a drug is effective or not, for instance), all sorts of weird remedies have been tried and have been lucrative for their makers. These are the rightful prey of Bob McCoy, who a decade or so ago established the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices in Minneapolis. In _Quack! Tales of Medical Fraud from the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices_ (Santa Monica Press), McCoy shows some of the contents of his museum, in book form. It's a treat.

All sorts of nostrums and gadgets are described and illustrated here: soaps that wash away weight, breast developers, and various stimulants to the sexual appetite. These are funny, but also covered is the tragedy of radium and those poisoned by it. The gadgets are hilarious. Nose adjusters, height developers, even glasses that would reduce your weight. The book has abundant quotations from the advertising and pamphlets that came with the quackery, and is profusely illustrated. Americans spend a hundred million dollars a year on quack pills and gadgets that do nothing and may be harmful. So _Quack!_ might not just deliver the fun of laughing at human greed and credulity, but it may help the serious education of readers as well.

Quack!: Tales Of Medical Fraud From The Museum Of Questionable Medical Devices is an informative and fascinating compendium of quaint, preposterous, and occasionally horrifying medical devices foisted upon the public by calculating charlatans and misguided medical practitioners. Some of these purveyors held the public's rapt attention for a time (Albert Abrams, who believed that all that was needed from a patient was a drop of blood, a single hair, or a handwriting sample which gave off a "vibration" that could be used for diagnosis and treatment, was promoted by Upton Sinclair in "Pearson's" magazine), while others were simple snake-oil vintage conmen whose tactics were to "hit and run". Profusely illustrated with photographs of odd medical mechanism, period advertisements, and newspaper clippings of the day, Bob McCoy (curator of the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices) offers a full-spectrum, very highly recommended survey of American medical quackery from the Prostate Gland Warmer to the Recto Rotor, the Nose Straightener to the Wonder Electric Generator.

I enjoyed this well-written, informative book. The author placed medicine shows in the context of American society and culture. Who knew that medicine, advertising and show business were so intertwined? A fascinating, fun read. I highly recommend this lively book. Ms. Anderson has a wonderful way of relating a subject that did not, at first, sound like one that could hold me for a whole book. It left me wanting to know even more. A terrific and entertainingly researched tome!

Ann Anderson has done her homework. Finding information about early medicine shows is about as easy as finding a fossilized T-Rex's tooth. Anderson has done a superb job with this work and I recommend it very highly to anyone interested in the "beginning entertainment" of the United States.

Arkansas Red-Ozark Troubadour
Eureka Springs, Arkansas

A thoroughly entertaining and informative book with a subject matter I never thought would interest me. Having an advertising background, I was intrigued and facinated by the history of the medicine show and the impact it has had on our culture from a media standpoint. Well written, incredibly reasearched, and fun to read. Read it!

August 6, 2000

Book Review - SNAKE OIL...GOOD FOR WHAT AILS YA!

Ann Anderson SNAKE OIL, HUSTLERS AND HAMBONES The American Medicine Show

McFarland & Company,Inc., Publishers

As an avid reader with very eclectic tastes, I found Ann Anderson's SNAKE OIL, HUSTLERS AND HAMBONES to be highly satisfying to my literary pallet. I am an actor who has made a living over the years doing T.V. commercials. It has long been of interest to me to know just how this crazy way of marketing came to be. However, any person that has ever watched a T.V. commercial, an info-mercial or read an advertisement in a magazine or newspaper, and wondered why ads are everywhere, will get a kick out of this book. This wonderful, funny, deliciously informative book is simply chock full of "Oh, I didn't know that!" and "So that's how that got started!" moments. She has also thought to delight our eye by including many authentic labels, illustrations and flyers from the periods she discusses. She has managed to be fastidiously scholarly in her research with out being at all dry or dull. Ms. Anderson's writing style is so accessible and real, it makes one feel you're having a cup of coffee and sitting down for a long lively chat with a very interesting friend. It's full of factual information both serious and humorous. It runs the gamut of historically profound and fancifully trivial information. She provides for us the "missing link", as it were, of how we got from there to here. SNAKE OIL, HUSTLERS AND HAMBONES is a darned good read. I'm looking forward to her next book.

This terrific book is as fun as it is informative. Anderson's exhaustive research is evident on every page, and her writing style is perfect: spare enough to let the color of the topic shine through, but never dry. As she relates the history of the medicine show, she shows how modern medicine, advertising and entertainment evolved together; her skill at illuminating these linkages gives the book even more weight and depth. It's an outstanding work of scholarship...and a damned good read!

My 2 year old has fallen in love with Little Quack. Ever since reading "Little Quacks Bedtime" she's been obsessed. Since I'm a push-over, I've purchased every book in the Little Quack series and while she LOVES them all, this one is her favorite. We've read it everyday for about a month now. I think it's all the fun sounds she gets to make as she reads along with me. I would recommend this book highly!!!

Such a cute book. Little Quack reminds me of my little one. Beautiful Illustrations

"Little Quack's New Friend" is the first book I'm featuring in my new series of reviews, Agent0042 Goes Ducky, in which I review cute picture books featuring talking duck characters.

"Little Quack's New Friend" is by Lauren Thompson, who has also written a series of books featuring a mouse's holiday experiences. It's illustrated by Derek Anderson. In this book, Little Quack and his friends are out playing, when they meet a new friend. Well, they don't all quite consider him a friend at first because he's, well, different. He's a frog, and only Little Quack wants to play with him at first. But is being different really such a bad thing?

This story features a fairly common theme you'll find in children's books, so in order for it to be interesting, it has to be done well. And it definitely is here. The story is fun, funny at times, and even teaches some basic counting. But the best are the vibrant, full-page illustrations, which teem with life and have brilliant, bold coloring. A winner of a book, sure to delight any child (or any fan of cute ducks.)

The cover of this book (I am reviewing the hardback), is enough to catch your eye and it will certainly catch the eye of your child. I recently had the pleasure of reading this one to a group of pre-school kids, and not one child was unhappy with the choice of book. I even got requests for seconded readings! That is a nice endorsement for any childrens book. This work is actually a bit of a mini-lesson in accepting those that may be a bit different..i.e. it is okay if the other kid is green rather than yellow, it is good to have diverse friends. The bold, simple art work in this one is an absolute delight to the eye. The text is simple and repetative and the characters are just simply cute. The little duckling and little frog are pretty typical you children and our little human children can certainly identify with them. Actually, there is not very much not to like about this book. Highly recommend.

Little Quack's New Friend by Lauren Thompson and illustrated by Derek Anderson is a completely delightful children's book. The bright cover got me to bring it home from the library and the clever story entranced my 3 year old daughter. Little Quack and his siblings: Widdle, Waddle, Piddle, and Puddle meet a new friend Little Ribbit, and they play together. The illustrations are amazingly charming, the words just repetitive enough for my daughter to enjoy what's coming next without me wanting to tear out my hair, and even my twelve year old daughter sat through a reading. My husband declared it adorable. It has a sweet, easy message of getting along despite our differences which is perfect for this age group. I've ordered other books in the series from the library, and if they are as good as this one, they will probably become Christmas presents.

My 15 month old daughter loves to look at books, and this one is her favorite. The parts to touch are big, and fluffy and easy to see. This is the second copy of this book we have bought. She has almost wore out the first one. Not because it has a bad binding, but because she has played with it so much, it's wearing out. We keep the old copy in her diaper bag, so she has it while she is in the nursery at church. We have some of the other touch and feel books from the same company, and this one is by far the best.

This and Zoo's Who? have been among my 1-yr old's favorites for a few months now. She loves to feel the various textures, she's learning the animals, and the large format is fun for her to manipulate. The graphics are simple and colorful and hold her attention, and there's not too much on the page for her to absorb. I like this a skosh better than Zoo's Who because it's easy to make all the farm animal noises to accompany the pictures, which makes her laugh, and which she tries to mimic. Much better than the DK touch-n-feel books.

We received this book as a shower gift. My girlfriends had everyone bring a book to start our twins book collection. And can I share with you how much they both love it! The book was such a BIG hit, I actually had to buy a new one already. Sarah & Zachary, now 13 1/2 months actually fight over the book. When it's quiet and we can't find them watching BABY EINSTEIN videos or playing, we can always find them pulling books from their bookshelf.

We also bought Who's Zoo too by the same author! Also a big hit with the duo. They still fight over books but they both have one now. These books are great for little hands to feel different textures. Each page has a short paragraph with bold pictures to touch. Books are one of the best gifts for a child!

When my mom got this book for my daughter, I did not think much of it. One day I read it to my 6 month old daughter and it is now her favorite book. We read it every night. It is really the only book that we have that she gets excited over. Now that she is a little older (8 Months), she now pets the animals in the book and always gets really excited when it comes out. It is her favorite one. The pictures are fun for her to look at and she loves to copy us petting the animals in the book.