Review by Booklist Review
A young boy suspects he's missing out on fun every night after his parents make him go to bed. Although all seems calm every morning, there are some incongruities: how did his stuffed duck wind up on the ceiling disco ball? He stays awake and sneaks downstairs one night, only to walk into . . . a wild bash! With party animals! Cows and monkeys gobble down pizza and donuts, and his parents dance and jump on the furniture and then fly off into the night sky, only to fall back down into bed, fast asleep. In the morning, the house is so clean the boy thinks it must have been a dream, but then he spots his duck behind the couch with an electric guitar. The boy narrates; the duck makes wise-quacks, and the bright, colorful illustrations spill across the pages, especially when showing frenzied shenanigans, which nicely contrast the neat panels that frame the scene when order prevails. This goofy bedtime drama is a worthy sequel to Duck in the Fridge (2014).--Kathleen McBroom Copyright 2018 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Horn Book Review
A little boy doesn't want to go to bed because he imagines all the amazing things that happen when he's asleep. The truth is even wackier than he imagined: the boy spies his parents partying and cracking jokes with his toy duck and other animals in boisterously illustrated scenes with speech bubbles. Mack leaves readers wondering what's real in this silly, energetic (and not for bedtime) book. (c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A supersilly riff on a perennial question: What do grown-ups do while kids sleep? The child narrator, shooed off to bed with his toy duck, stalls his grown-ups with questions: "What if my duck needs a snack?" "Or a giant boulder rolls over the house?" In the mornings, "something is always just a little weird." In this illustration, Duck lies flopped over that titular disco ball, above an open fridge that conjures Mack's previous Duck in the Fridge (2014). The boy decides to track his parents' nighttime whereaboutsand witnesses a rumpus that incorporates many of his previous, wild questions. Seemingly, parents and duck collaborate on chaotic fun that includes couch-diving and a multispecies party featuring snacks and hokey wordplay. Dad exuberantly yells, "I wanna rock!" Cue the duck, a crane, and a huge boulder that crashes the partyflattening the couch but not the maniacally upbeat mood. Magically, the parents fly out the window, sky-high, then fall back into bedwhere the boy curls up to sleep, too. A dream, right? Maybe not: There's that duck, tuckered out behind the couch near a familiar electric guitar. Mack's digital pictures mix retro textile prints and boldly outlined, cartoonish depictions of round-eyed humans and animals. The boy's parents look like kids themselves, and the trio appears white.Nothing new here, but kids may get a kick out of the wacky premise and broad, pun-studded humor. (Picture book. 3-7) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
