Mr. Putney's Quacking Dog

by Jon Agee

A hilarious book of animal riddles

Genres: Picture Books, Humor, Animals, Childrens, Dogs, Storytime, Fiction

Hardcover

First published August 1, 2010

About the author

I grew up in Nyack, New York, just up the street from the Hudson River. In our house, there was always an art project going on.

My early drawings were very animated: a lot of stuff zipping around, airplanes, racing cars, football players. No surprise my first published drawing was a pack of rats running along a highway (The Rat Race). I did that for the New York Times Op Ed page when I was still in high school.

I went to college at The Cooper Union School of Art in New York City. I studied painting, sculpture and filmmaking, but what I loved doing most—in my spare time—was drawing cartoons and comic strips.

When I graduated, I hauled my pile of doodles into the offices of a bunch of editors, with the wild notion that somebody might publish them. When that failed, I wrote a story for kids to go with my pictures (If Snow Falls). It was two sentences long (which counts, by the way). Frances Foster, a wonderful editor at Random House, saw something in that book and signed me up.

The next book, Ellsworth, was about a dog who teaches economics at a university. When he gets home, he throws off his clothes and acts like a dog, which is fine, until some fellow teachers discover this and he loses his job. Somebody told me that Ellsworth was a story about "being yourself." I never realized it had a moral.

I moved to another publisher with Ludlow Laughs, the story of a grumpy guy who laughs in his sleep. This book was doing very poorly until the comedienne Phyliss Diller read it on PBS's Reading Rainbow. It stayed in print for over twenty years.

My fourth book, The Incredible Painting of Felix Clousseau, was a hit. One of the first people to see it and give it the thumb's up—literally, hot off the press—was Maurice Sendak. We bumped into each other at the printers. It was a lucky first meeting, and happily not our last.

That was all a long time ago. Since then I've written many other picture books, illustrated a few by other authors, and created a series of offbeat wordplay books, beginning with the book of palindromes, Go Hang a Salami! I'm a Lasagna Hog!

I visit schools across the country and sometimes around the globe. I live with my wife, Audrey, in San Francisco.

Reviews

[Sheri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amusing wordplay with goofy illustrations to match. I loved looking at the pictures trying to guess the next animal. A good family read that will get everyone in a silly mood.

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have become a huge Jon Agee fan! Just the right amount of silliness and learning that makes for a great learning experience for young children.

[Candace · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a hilarious book of animal riddles. The word play and illustrations are ingenious and fun. This book is recommended for children who like riddles; pre-kindergarten through second grade.

[Tasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love puns. Frankly, I couldn’t have groan up in my family without loving them. So this book is write up my alley! Mr. Putney has a lot of animal friends, but you have to guess their names. The word play is a combination of illustrations and words with half of the joke coming from the text and half from the pictures. Some of the word play is easier than others, but all is amusing and some will have you laughing out loud. This book would be a stitch with a group of kids who enjoy reading and words. In fact, it would make a great basis of an art project or for a writing project to create their own puns.

Agee’s illustrations are in his signature style. Outlined in thick black lines, they are disarmingly simple and filled with a sly humor. An ideal companion to the book’s concept, they add appeal to the word play. Mr. Putney is a straight-laced character whose reactions are satisfying and funny as he deals with each of the unique animals in the book. There is a certain delight in seeing him doused, thrown into the air, or just shocked by a loud noise.

Get this into the hands of kids who love guessing games and word play. Or just into the hands of any punny folks you know. Appropriate for ages 5-8.

[talia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wordplay and wacky animals...what’s not to love?

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pun is defined by Webster's dictionary as:
"the humorous use of a word or words, which are formed or sounded alike but have different meanings, in such a way as to play on two or more of the possible applications; a play on words."
Mr. Putney is full of puns, the smart, roll your eyes and groan kind. His animal friends all have unusual names, the quacking dog (dachshund) on the cover? A Duckshund  Study the pictures and the animal shown to determine the animal’s puny name, try to see how many you can guess!
Mr. Putney provides a fun way to get kids brains warmed up or fill a few minutes of waiting with some productive mental exercise.

For more information on puns see:
http://www.worsleyschool.net/socialar...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pun
http://www.punoftheday.com/cgi-bin/di...

[Sarah BT · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED this book! I took it home to read to my husband (who isn't one who will willingly let me read him picture books often!) and we both had a blast with it.

Mr. Putney's Quacking Dog is full of world play. Who wakes Mr. Putney up in the morning? An ALARMadillo!! The drawings are fun and have a classic, James Marshall/Jules Feiffer feel to them.

But the illustrations are just half the fun. Reading the book and trying to figure out what the animal name is what makes the book. And not all the animals are easy to figure out which makes it perfect for older readers. I would even read this one with tweens and teens. And it's perfect for tweens looking for a new joke or riddle to tickle their funny bone.

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Mr. Putney's Quacking Dog, it's not Mr. Putney's house that is unusual per se, but rather Mr. Putney's animal friends, who help Mr. Putney accomplish the multiple little tasks that make up his day. Waking up in the morning is easy when you have an alarmadillo, and what else do you use to measure your nephew but a goruler? Some of his friends are pets, like his quacking dog (a duckshund) and some seem to be more like neighbors, like the socktopus living in his pool.

Full review on Pink Me: http://pinkme.typepad.com/pink-me/201...

[Cassandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

HAHAHAHAHA. PUNS. I'm not sure the kiddos would get all (or any) of the jokes, but I enjoyed them, because I am me. Will update review if I ever decide to get risky (frisky?) and try it for storytime.

[Nicole]

Grown-up enjoyment factor: 9/10
-very punny, love how you turn the page for the answer to the animal pun riddles
-most of the puns were really good, maybe two were meh
-inventive illustrations

Suitability for 4 mo-old: 4/10
-WAY beyond cognitive abilities
-pictures are engaging
-a little too long

Brigid enjoyment factor: 2/10
-first library book she ever read, maybe she prefers familiar books?
-seemed a little distressed/bored

[Beau’s Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious wordplay - an actual laugh out loud read. Quick, cute and silly. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Lindsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dad jokes but this book was lots of fun to read.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cute. Not sure it's worth a big ole hardcover, though - I'm accustomed to riddle books being the skinny pulp mm pbs of my youth. But, bonus star for being just the right level of difficulty. With thought, I got the majority of these, and most of the rest I could have gotten if I'd worked harder.

Only one was really bad, though, imo. "Who fits into Mr. Putney's backpack?" (picture of a camel) "A cramel."

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ready to expose your students to play on words and puns? This picture book full of picture clues and short simple sentences is just the ticket. While not all the puns and play on words work as well as others, kids will be kept guessing how to transform each animal name into the answer for the riddle. A fun book to share.

[Peacegal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super goofy riddles with wonderfully wacky illustrations!

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part of my job is that I read to kids who don't usually get read to at home. It's sometimes hard to keep their attention. One of my toughest kiddos loved this book. He was engaged the whole time and was guessing what the name of the animal was possibly going to be, for that reason, I easily gave this book 5 starts!

[Garrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

What do you call a book with lots of terrible puns?

My favorite!

Sorry, that wasn't...that wasn't a pun... Let me try again.

What do you call a book with lots of terrible puns?

Laugherature. Like laugh plus literature? Come back to me, i'll get a better one.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Jon Agee's quirkiness-which shine in every one of his titles. This one was full of ridiculous animal riddles--some of which made me giggle aloud while others admittedly were a stretch and not as funny. But, the illustrations, as always, were just so delightful.

[Andrew Oh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amusing. Good for school age children.

[Mikey Golczynski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfect for those little comedians in your house who are clever enough to get and appreciate puns.

[Beronica · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit long with tons of punchlines.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun play on words. Great to read aloud to 2nd-4th grade to see if they can guess the animal name.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who is knitting Mr. Putney a sweater? You'll have to read it to find out. https://this-life.blog/2019/07/06/mr-...

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The play on words in this book is great fun. I really liked alarmadillo, spyena and cramel.

[Kelly Wong · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has a little fun riddle/pun for parents and kids to guess on every turn of the page.

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Which friend of Mr. Putney's has cold feet? A Socktopus"

Students will have fun trying to guess the next silly name for Mr. Putney's friends.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun book for littles! Amusing.

[Beth Bauman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very silly animal puns.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

We thought it was very punny. Cute and clever word play.

[Hanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

funny for average intelligence but not sure if a young child would get all the jokes! But an interesting inventory of all the main character's friends, thus discuss with what they all are.