Farmer Duck

Wonderful little book, both storyline and illustrations, about a hard-working duck who, with the solidarity of the other farm animals, turns the tables on the exploitative, lazy boss. A moral for our times!

Martin Waddell books are always a joy to read, and this book is no exception. Perfectly worded and illustrated.

Story line - Story about a selfish farmer that gets the duck to do all the work, while he sits in bed eating chocolate. But one day the animals all see that duck is getting angry so they all creep in on the farmer and break his bed while he’s sleeping. The farmer gets up and runs away and never comes back.Early Years Teachers - This book proved to be an invaluable resource on my teaching placements. As with this well respected and loved children's author, Martin Waddell, this is a great book with a good story line. It is so versatile and can be enjoyed by many ages. It is really easy to engage with as there are so many possible themes in the story which can be explored to a suitable depth dependent on the children's ages.Themes include: sharing, manners, friendship, helping, animals and farms.Activity ideas: discussion about how the duck may have felt doing all the work; discussion about what would happen to the farmer if he kept doing what he was doing; writing a letter to either the duck or the farmer expressing their own opinions on the matter; role playing the story using the key phrase "how goes the work?"; discussing how the work could be shared out evenly if they were the farmer; exploring farm animals, their habitats and potentially visiting a farm.The DVD is a great added extra and can be used to entice the children into the story.Would recommend to any early years teacher or parent.

This story book is lovely. First saw it in a child's play area in restaurant, had to buy it as granddaughter loved it.

He really enjoyed this book

I bought this book for my grandson who is 18 months and it is one of his favourites. The book is beautifully illustrated and the story comes to life watching the DVD as we are reading the book. The story is easy to follow and the narrative is very clear and holds my grandson's attention every time I put it on. A firm favourite and it makes me want to buy other book/DVD's in the series.

This book begins on the inside cover, with a dull coloured picture which is full of foreboding. The repetitive wording goes down very well with children, who love to join in after a few reads. The story is heart wrenching and we do not like the human farmer. However it shows team work and support, and the inside back cover has the same picture but in brighter more positive colours, making us happy with the ending.

Our daughter’s favourite book from about the age of one! Won’t go to bed now without it being read!