Farmer Duck

The rich human peasant is sitting in bed eating bonbons earned off the surplus value extracted from the duck's backbreaking labour as a tenant farmer, but the duck gonna get what's his, with the help of his furry and feathered class allies. Now this is a Maoist picture book.

When a kind and hard working duck nearly collapses from overwork while taking care of a farm because the owner is too lazy to do so, the rest of the animals get together and chase the farmer out of town.

The illustrations in this book go nicely from gray and gloomy when the duck is being oppressed to bright and sunny when the lazy farmer gets what-for.

There are some logical inconsistencies in the story, but if you're reading this to young kids you can rest assured that they (probably) won't notice.

Farmer duck slaves away on a farm while the farmer does nothing. The other farm animals rebel, saving the duck and forcing the farmer to work.

This lazy farmer has a duck that he makes do all the work. All the while he lays in bed and eats candy. The duck does the milking, feeding of the other animals, plowing, and all of the other chores including wait on the farmer. The cows, chickens,& pigs decide enough is enough. So they creep into

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the house late at night and throw the farmer out of bed. They chase him all the way off of the farmer. The next day all the animals work together to tend to the farm.

I grew up on a farm and I know how much work that it takes to get everything done. I wish I had animals who could help out. It would have been nice to not have to clean up after them or feed them. Oh the joys of fantasy.

I would sing "Old Mcdonald had a Farm" after reading this book. It is a fun activity and the kids would enjoy it. I would also talk about what all you have to do to take care of a farm. This will get the kids to do some brainstorming.

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Great watercolor work can be so understated in children's literature, not in this book. The design work makes absolutely wonderful use of letting these spectacular watercolor illustrations really tell the story, almost with the word as the backdrop just making sure you follow along. All together it

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is a great story with a couple of wonderful characters that are made even more entertaining by the incredibly expressive illustration.

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A duck is stuck doing all the work on a farm! Can his friends save him? A wonderful picture book that tells a fun story about animal friendship. It also makes for a great read aloud to children.

Duck works for a lazy farmer who makes him do all the work, until the animals come up with a plan to get rid of the farmer. A very funny story good to read aloud with little ones, who will enjoy participating with the repetitive text.

A duck doing all the work of a farmer? In the case of this lovely picture book... yes. Duck and his farm animal friends cook up a scheme to get rid of the farmer, and hilarity ensues.

One of my all time favorite children's books. A duck must slave away all day to maintain the farm while the farm sleeps and eats chocolate. Finally, the other animals have had enough, and plot to rescue the duck.

"The hens and the cow and the sheep got very upset. They loved the duck. So they held

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a meeting under the moon, and they made a plan for the morning. 'Moo!' said the cow. 'Baa!' said the sheep. 'Cluck!' said the hens. And THAT was the plan!"

A most excellent story!

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This is a good story. It would be useful to read before the children are going to work in groups on some assignment. It would be a reminder how frustrating it can be to be the person doing all the work. The images are very cute; you can see the facial expression on the duck grows more and more

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tired as the book goes on.

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When a lazy farmer makes one duck do all the chores to keep up the farm the other animals have pity, devise a plan, and run the lazy farmer off the farm where the animals can work together under the ducks lead. This story is great because the illustrations reflect the situation and text and an

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important lesson is told in a fun manner that allows kids to catch on to a repetitive key phrase and then engage in telling the story. This would be suitable for kids ages three to five.

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The appeal for this book is how ordinary farm animals essential take over a farm. This is appealing because normally farm animals are part of the farm, rather than being the farmers. The book follows a duck that is forced to do all the farm work and eventually the rest of the animals run the lazy

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farmer off the farm. It’s a book that entertains the idea that what goes around, comes around.

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Farmer Duck
I liked “Farmer Duck” by Martin Wadell and can see two big reasons this book would be great in the classroom. First, there was repetition with the words, “How goes the work?” This was repeated throughout the book and provides great opportunity for students to read the words with

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you and to interact with the book. Second, the book incorporates animal sounds throughout. The duck answers the question of “how goes the work?” with “Quack”. The book follows through with “Down the lane, Moo!” and “through the fields, Baa!” This continues to give the students additional opportunity to be an active part of the book. One final reason I liked this book was the plot. The story holds suspense of the duck working hard and the farmer doing nothing. Students can learn empathy for the duck and enjoy seeing Duck’s friends come to his rescue. The author chose a farm scene and farm animals to keep young readers attention for the big idea of friendship and hard work.

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I liked this book a lot. It had a lot of positivity even through hard times. The story’s language was simple and easy to read. The story was placed on a farm with a duck doing all the work while a famer lays in his bed. The farmer would ask “How goes the work?” and the duck would respond

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“quack”. Without the illustrations the reader would not be able to tell that the duck was having an awful time doing all of the work. The illustrations were dark when, bad times were occurring and bright when good things were happening for the duck. The well-constructed plot had the other farm animals stick up for the duck. This was a great idea by the author to add conflict where the farm animals not including the duck kick the farmer out of his bed put a smile on my face. I loved to see the other farm animals helping the duck when being abused by the farmer. The story was written in third person. The writing wasn’t biased but it did make the farmer look like the bad guy. The language used by the farm animals is what you would think you would hear from them. The duck said “quack, the cow said “moo”, the sheep said “baa” and etc. This book was non fiction however; having the animals not speak like humans worked well. The big idea of this book is justice. No matter what, justice should be something children look for in life.

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omigosh
Animal Farm before it all went sour. No pigs here, though so the ending *will* be happily ever after. Lovely pix, enchanting read aloud text, recommended for ages 2 to 12 to 102. (Large print for those with vision troubles, too!)

This was a great picture book that used repeatition and animal sounds so children can read along and match the animal sounds to the different animals. It also shows the importance of self-reward, friendship, compassion, hard work and community effort.

I read this in English with Portuguese and Spanish translators for a library event. So many languages can slow a story down and make it hard to keep the kids' attention, but the repetition and the animal noises made for a great read-aloud despite the multilingual confusion.