Thump, Quack, Moo

Starred review from July 14, 2008
It's another interspecies battle of wits—and read-aloud winner—from a celebrated duo. This time, Farmer Brown is trying to put together a fabulous Statue of Liberty corn maze. But the ever-subversive Duck has different ideas—and given that he also owns night-vision goggles and a glow-in-the-dark ruler, it's not surprising whose artistic vision triumphs. This entry is more goofy than satiric—it's closer in spirit to Dooby Dooby Moo
than Duck for President
. But it also proves that this team continues to operate in top form. Lewin is especially good here: her bold, loosely rendered watercolors continue to find new comic depths in the obsessive, cranky Duck (the scenes drawn from the perspective of his night-vision goggles are a hoot). And the subsidiary characters garner plenty of giggles, too. Ages 3–7.