Top 100 Picture Books #39: Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin, illustrated by Betsy Lewin

#39 Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin, illustrated by Betsy Lewin (2000)
43 points
Si, se puede!  Yes they can!  When Labor Day rolls around and I need to make a labor-related book display (oh yeah, that’s how I roll) what do I like to pull out?  Nothing short of the old Click, Clack, Moo.  We’ve talked about how a lot of the books on this list make for good readalouds, but this book is, for me, a staple.  I sometimes forget how good it is too.  So simple.  So perfect.  “The duck was a neutral party.”  How you top sentences like that?
Children’s Literature described the plot as, ” ‘Cows that type? Impossible!’ That’s what Farmer Brown thinks when he first hears the ‘click, clack’ from the barn, but then he reads the note the cows write him. All they want is electric blankets for the cold barn. When he refuses, they go on strike. What’s worse for the farmer is that the strike spreads to the cold hens as well. Duck finally negotiates a compromise. Unfortunately for Farmer Brown, the ducks have learned from all this, leaving us with a smile at the ending.”
Yup.  It’s a picture book about the man keeping you down.  I wish I could remember whether or not it appears in Tales for Little Rebels (no index) or I’d quote you some good old-fashioned union politics as well.  Ah well.  For now we’ll just have to leave it at “really good story” and be satisfied with that.  Eventually the duck would come to rule the series, but in this tale he has a relatively understated (comically so) role.
Some folks have told me that the book is outdated because kids don’t know what typewriters are anymore.  You say outdated, I say classic.  Even if you don’t initially recognize what a typewriter is, it explains itself pretty well right from the start.  Besides, if it were a laptop then the title might have been Tip, Tap, Moo and that’s far less interesting.
Publishers Weekly said of it, “Kids and underdogs everywhere will cheer for the clever critters that calmly and politely stand up for their rights, while their human caretaker becomes more and more unglued.”

Filed under: Best Books, Top 100 Picture Books Poll