Giggle, Giggle, Quack...and More Stories by Doreen Cronin is so much fun, you don’t need to watch with kids to enjoy it. Comprised of five children’s stories written by Doreen Cronin and illustrated by Betsy Lewin and Harry Bliss, Giggle, Giggle, Quack is an entry in the “Scholastic Storybook Treasures” of read-along DVDs. Randy Travis narrates three of the stories; Abigail Breslin and Alexander Gould each narrate one.
Randy Travis was an excellent choice for the three Farmer Brown stories. His reassuring, down-home delivery combines well with the background bluegrass music to bring the stories to life. The first farm-based story, "Giggle, Giggle, Quack," tells about the time Farmer Brown went away on vacation, leaving the farm in the capable hands of his brother, Bob. Duck, who happens to be a… um… duck, is a bit of a problem for Farmer Brown who warns Bob to keep an eye on Duck, leaving him with a to-do list. Bob doesn’t know that Duck has gotten hold of a pencil and can write his own to-do list. Like all the stories on Giggle, Giggle, Quack, this one is short enough—and funny enough—to hold the attention of its intended audience, three- to eight-year-olds. They are also droll enough to amuse some of us older folk, who watch with big smiles plastered across our silly faces. MaGic Studio deserves a gold star for bringing Betsy Lewin’s charming watercolor illustrations to animated life.
"Dooby Dooby Moo" is the tale of a talent show at the county fair that is offering a prize that Duck really wants. The cows rehearse “Twinkle, Twinkle,” the sheep rehearse “Home on the Range,” and the pigs rehearse an interpretive dance to the strains of an Enya-esque song. The day of the fair, Farmer Brown loads all the animals onto his truck, drives to the fair, and immediately heads for the free barbecue (hey… my county fair doesn’t offer free barbecue!), leaving the animals in the bed of his pickup. When he’s out of sight, the animals head over to the show tent to perform. There is something innately funny about a bunch of farm animals signing in with a human fair worker who doesn’t bat an eyelash. The animals do their thing and, of course, there's a slight hitch. Without revealing too much, I must say that you’ve never heard or seen anything like a duck singing “Born to Be Wild.” When the animals complete their performances they return to the truck, and Farmer Brown is none the wiser. As a buzz-killing adult, I wondered, “Why did Farmer Brown take the animals to the fair if he wasn’t showing them?” but the answer is obvious. If he didn’t, there’d be no story.
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