Chicken, Chicken, Duck!

In Chicken, Chicken, Duck! by Nadia Krilanovich, Duck and his barnyard buddies are up to something. And not much more can be said about the plot of this overly simplistic book. No one knows what is taking place, or that anything will take place, until the very end of the story.

The conclusion of the book is intended to be a “big reveal” of what Duck and the animals have been doing (building a stack of animals—not overly interesting to begin with), but so little has happened during the book (either via text or illustration) that readers can’t even begin to guess, nor would they want to. The introduction of each animal doesn’t even make sense, as the larger animals are introduced in the middle of the book, and are placed at the bottom of the stack (which logic tells us, is built first).

The illustrations are adequate, but uninspired. They don’t convey what’s going on, albeit, there needs to be an element of mystery for the ending to work. The truth is, this book would be better suited as a board book for the very young as it is little more than identifying animal names and sounds. Older children will find it babyish. Acceptable as a board book, bland as a picture book.