Quack Quack Books

This is just a book of sheer silliness.

The cows, having obtained a typewriter, unionize for better conditions (they want lights and electric blankets).

When the farmer finally gives in to their demands... the duck runs off with the typewriter. (They want a diving board.)

There's no pretense of a moral here, it's just a silly book about a silly situation. Just what's needed sometimes :)

My students love this story (ages 7-12)! And I use it to teach students about the democratic process. This is a wonderful story about the options open to people in a democratic society. I have used it to talk about strikes, expressing your opinions and negotiations. DO my 7 year olds get all that from Click Clack Moo, not that they can articulate but they are getting it on some level. And it allows me to explain what a typewriter is. Do not underestimate what young people are picking up from a story such as this.

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 husband and my mother love to read the Little Quack books to my son. My son is very interested in the pictures and it's the only books he'll sit through.

This is a well-written book for toddlers--a fun story, with interesting language, that they can easily understand. It's got a good message, about not being afraid to try new things, and the illustrations are very cute and interesting. My 2-year-old is madly in love with Little Quack, and my 4-year-old likes to listen in too!

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!

With characters named Widdle, Waddle, Piddle Puddle and Little Quack you know that your pre-schooler is bound to love this book. It's a cute little story about the ducks leaving the nest for their first big swim, and how Quack builds up the courage to leave the nest with lots of love and encouragement.

There are wonderful lessons here for little readers, but the best and most amazing part of this book are the fabulous expressions on the faces of all these little ducks! I didn't think it was possible to make ducks look all that different and show real emotion, but it's all here in this wonderful, entertaining book that will win raves from the kids and parents.

My 18-month old carries this book around with him during the day. The photos keep him busy and he loves turning the pages.

There really isn't a story to the book. Just animal noises. Fun to read and I've heard him practicing the noises when he looks at the book himself.

Cute book. I'm glad I bought it.

My 7 month old grandson loves this book! The real photographs are extremely appealing. There is just enough text for his attention span. He loves to turn the pages and looks at each picture intently. He has dogs (both real and stuffed) of his own and has really been interested in the dog in the picture. The size of the book is perfect for his hands. We have only had this book 3 days, and he wants to read it over and over; I think I've read it about 25 times already!

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 great book, with arguably universal appeal. The humor ranges from being rather heady and hard-to-follow, all the way down to being non-sequiter and accessable. Pretty much anyone will grow to like this book very much; anyone who has read it previously will love it immediately.

This I guarantee to you, dear friend!

I really enjoyed this book.
I knew i would before i bought it. Chances are other reviews say this already.
But check out www.qwantz.com. This book has the first comic through to somewhere in 2005.
Pretty straight forward.
All the comics are in black and white in this book. Which let me tell you is actually disappointing because the dinosaur expressions suffer.

This book is fantastic. If you are a fan of dinosaur comics, then this book provides is great because of its portability and also because it is very classy b+w. If you are not a fan of dinosaur comics this book is a classy, black and white representation of the comics from the popular webcomic. I have no real reason to repeat what many others have said about Mr. North's work, but I will anyways. It was said best this way:

"Picture watching the same movie again and again, where the dialogue is changed so completely, and with so much skill that you forget that you've seen these images before. Now picture that every day for two years. That's Dinosaur Comics."

This is that, in book form. Awesome.

It must have been hard to pick the 'best' of Dinosaur Comic, because it's all genius. You should buy this book. It will make you more Awesome, and perhaps sexy.

If you enjoy Dinosaur Comics, you must purchase and read this book. After reading this book, I became a popular and successful person, and because chronology = causality, I attribute my good fortune to this book!

Also, you know who HASN'T purchased this book? Child molestors and shoplifters. You're not a child molestor and/or shoplifter, are you?

-Matt

P.S. See if you can spot the two logical fallacies in this review! If you spotted at least 50% of them, you are eligible to purchase this book immediately!

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.

Was a cute book for reading with my new grandson. He enjoyed the wonderful pictures and cute duck.

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.

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.

I got this for my 2-year-old after she fell in love with the first Little Quack book, and she adores this one too. The Little Quack books are really well-written--little children can easily understand the story, but the language isn't "dumbed down" at all. The illustrations are also really interesting to look at, in addition to being cute. The only problem is that now I'm going to have to get the rest of the Little Quack books!

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.

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!