Sunday, December 30, 2007

Billions of Quacks

Billions of Quacks
Faye Tornquist
pictures by A. E. Kennedy
Samuel Gabriel Sons & Company, 1939


My mother has been obsessing about getting Quacks for my son for a while now. She had a copy from when she was little, but the binding was all broken. So this Christmas, he got about a dozen of the pages framed from her original as well as a purchased vintage copy. Billions of Quacks quite simply rocks!

Once upon a time there was a dear Little Duck
who couldn't stop quacking.
"Stop quacking", said his mother.
The Little Duck tried, but he couldn't!
"Stop quacking", said his father.
The Little Duck tried, but he couldn't!...Little Duck tried as hard as he knew how.
He cried. He worried. He took sips of water.
He held his breath. But it didn't do any good!
The quacks just kept coming out
one right after the other, like this,
"Quack...Quack...Quack...!"
Thousands of them! millions of them! billions of them!!!
The illustrations are vibrant and the story of the Little Duck who gives his quacks away to the Toy Maker is completely delicious. It has a high collectible factor, so if you ever run into one at a book sale, grab it! You can't help but fall in love with the proud little duckling, and the slight old-time "kids should be seen and not heard" moral is endearing yet dated. I LOVE THIS BOOK!

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