Click, Clack, Quackity-Quack: An Alphabetical Adventure

by Doreen Cronin

Overview

Animals awake beneath blue blankets
Clickety-clack!
The cows on Farmer Brown's farm are typing again. Duck can't wait to show everyone their latest note. Just what are they up to this time? Duck's not telling, but if you follow the alphabet one letter at a time, you'll find out. And you'll have as much fun as the animals are going to have, and learn your letters, too!
This alphabetical adventure for the very youngest fans of Duck brings alphabet books to a whole new level — click, clack, quackity-quack!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780689877155
Publisher:	Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	10/01/2005
Series:	Click, Clack Series
Pages:	24
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	3 - 5 Years

About the Author

Doreen Cronin is the author of many bestselling and New York Times bestselling picture books, including Click, Clack, Quack to School!; Click, Clack, Surprise!; Click, Clack, Ho, Ho, Ho; Click, Clack, Peep; Click, Clack, Boo!; Dooby Dooby Moo; Thump, Quack, Moo: A Whacky Adventure; Bounce; Wiggle; Duck for President; Giggle, Giggle, Quack; Bloom; and the Caldecott Honor Book Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type as well as The Chicken Squad series and Cyclone. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. Visit her at DoreenCronin.com.

Editorial Reviews

It's funny business as usual down on the Brown farm, as droll Duck and those literate cows from Cronin and Lewin's Click, Clack Moo: Cows That Type return in this conceptual romp for younger readers. It seems the cows have tapped out their latest directive and it involves Duck's help in its implementation. In a jovial, bouncy tone, Cronin crafts alliterative phrases beginning with each letter of the alphabet (e.g., "Goats grooming, hens helping, inchworms inching. Jumpity-jump!") to tell the simple tale of a pleasant Duck-led summer outing. As readers follow Duck and his red wagon through the pages, they also waddle through their ABC's: each lower-case letter is highlighted in a large typeface, alongside the appropriate words and images. Eventually, the cast of critters ends up where X marks the perfect spot for a picnic, replete with plenty of "watermelons waiting." Lewin's loose, thickly outlined watercolors keep readers in playful suspense along the way, dropping visual hints for eagle-eye observers. Her sunny depictions of this barnyard bunch brim with personality and humorous detail. Ages 2-5. (Oct.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

PreS-Gr 2-The farmyard is aflutter as the "cows that type" return with new correspondence. Youngsters will soon realize that they invited all of their animal friends, including Duck, to a picnic. The alphabetical adventure begins as the "Animals awake" and ends 25 letters later with them peacefully snoring "Zzzzzzzz-." In between there is plenty of fun as Duck pulls the "Mice munching" in a red wagon, "Rain" threatens, and "X marks the picnic spot." Once again, this author-illustrator team works in perfect harmony to create a colorful and funny story with highly expressive animals. It's sure to delight Duck's many fans, and there's a distinct possibility that this adventure will have more appeal to preschoolers than the original story that inspired it.-Maura Bresnahan, High Plain Elementary School, Andover, MA Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Preschoolers familiar with the Caldecott Honor-winning Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type will recognize that cacophonous crew of barnyard animals in this spin-off "alphabetical adventure." The story begins with an avalanche of alliteration: "Animals awake / beneath blue blankets. / Clickety-clack!" Once again, Farmer Brown's cows are typing. Duck dashes off with their freshly typed note, but why? And what does the note say? As Duck zooms by goats grooming, hens helping, and inchworms inching, she grabs a mouse-inhabited, picnic basket-bearing red wagon. The mysterious note turns out to be a big X because "X marks the picnic spot." (A rather central glitch: the bold X is clearly hand-drawn, and the cows were supposed to have typed this note. Ah, well.) The picnicking menagerie (inchworms included) eats a wagonload of watermelon and promptly falls asleep, a rather sudden ending perhaps designed to cue preschoolers to call it a day themselves. Lewin's brush and watercolor illustrations are as loose and lively as ever, barely restrained by the A-to-Z format that juxtaposes a big lowercase letter with each visual vignette. (Picture book. 2-5)

Kirkus Reviews