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Old Mr. Mackle Hackle    by Gunnar Madsen & Irana Shepherd Amazon.com order for
Old Mr. Mackle Hackle
by Gunnar Madsen
Order:  USA  Can
Little, Brown & Co., 2005 (2005)
Hardcover
* *   Reviewed by Hilary Williamson

Irana Shepherd's zany, colorful illustrations are the perfect match for Gunnar Madsen's delightfully silly verses. Old Mr. Mackle Hackle 'had a hen that wouldn't cackle', and he's bound and determined to fix the problem.

The doctor's offering of a beak to help the hen speak is rejected, and the fortune-teller's snack makes her quack. But Mr. Mackle Hackle is determined to make that hen cackle, so he buys a book of chicken jokes (I rather liked 'What do you call a crazy chicken? A cuckoo cluck!') The hen doesn't appreciate them, but she does lay some eggs, and that finally resolves the problem.

Old Mr. Mackle Hackle offers the sort of rhyming silliness that kids love. That stubborn old man finally gets what he wanted, and we leave him surrounded by cackles.

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