Quackery: Thump, Quack, Moo: A Whacky Adventure by Doreen Cronin

It's almost time for the annual Corn Festival.

Farmer Brown is very excited. This year he's making a Statue of Liberty corn maze.

He's going to need help to get everything ready on time.

Farmer Brown pores over his reference book on corn mazes, sharpens his pencil, and and pulls together his art supplies, sketch book, graph paper, and his mower, ready to do the intellectual heavy lifting for this project. For the other kind of work, he calls on his barnyard crew. At first the chickens are not excited about fencing the corn field, but when Brown, um, eggs them on by letting them use his hammers, they get busy--Cluck Whack! Cluck Whack! Cluck Whack! The cows are likewise un-moo-ved by the task of sprucing up the barn until the farmer offers them his paint and brushes. In no time the cows are hard at work--Moo Thwack! Moo Thwack! Moo Thwack!

Farmer Brown knows Duck isn't going to lift a feather to help out until he lays down the options --"no help, no more special-order, organic duck feed!" Grumbling, Duck grabs some lumber and begins to build a ticket booth--Thump! Quack! Thump Quack! Thump Quack!

The barn mice stay out of the building trades, instead taking a correspondence course in meteorology. Their observation on the atmosphere around the farm?

PARTLY SUNNY

Of course, Duck is not one to take a backseat role. Every night, after Farmer Brown parks his mower, Duck gathers his art supplies, graph paper, sketch book, night-vision goggles, glow-in-the-dark ruler, and hedge clippers, and adds his own, er, vision to the project, as the meteorological mice observe

BAROMETRIC PRESSURE DROPPING

At last the opening day of the Corn Maze Festival arrives. The chickens' fence is a mess, the side of the barn is painted with heroic-sized bovine portraits, and Duck's ticket booth is customized with peepholes for his eyes and a quacking-good hole for his bill in the front. The barn mice have a last-minute forecast for the day:

THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM!

But the biggest surprise comes when Farmer Brown boards the festive hot-air balloon to view his masterpiece from the skies. Duck waddles aboard as well, and when they soar over the site, Farmer Brown's jaw drops with amazement as a vertical foldout page reveals the product of his and Duck's a-maze-ing labors--a Duck of Liberty clearly cut into the corn patch! While the disgruntled farmer contemplates the results of his work, Duck (who luckily has brought along a parachute) bails out with a hearty "Geronimo!" And as Duck precipitates into the maze, the mice make their final weather observation:

PARTLY CLOUDY. CHANCE OF DUCK.

Thump, Quack, Moo: A Whacky Adventure is the latest in the humorous adventures of Farmer Brown's barnyard buddies, which include the best-seller Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type, Giggle, Giggle, Quack, Dooby Dooby Moo, and the recently updated Duck for President.