Staff Pick: Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type (ages 4-8)

We've all heard that the "pen is mightier than the sword" and "the squeaky wheel gets the grease," well in Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin, Farmer Brown learns firsthand just how true these adages are when his cows find a typewriter in the barn and demand better treatment.

When Farmer Brown first hears the click-clack sounds coming from the barn, he tries digging out the wax buildup in his ears because cows can't type!

But these cows can, and they nail their demands on the barn wall:

Dear Farmer Brown,

The barn is very cold at night. We'd like some electric blankets.

Sincerely,
The Cows

Farmer Brown will not give in to their demands, so they go on strike and withhold their milk. It's not long before the hens feel the chill in the barn and join the strike.

This puts Farmer Brown in a tizzy because every fool knows you can't run a farm with no milk and no aiggs! So he dusts off his own typewriter and bangs out a letter reminding the cows and hens that they are animals and he demands that they produce for him.

Eventually the two sides come to an agreement, and peace returns to the farm. That is until Duck feels empowered to make his own demands known. Seems what the boring pond has always needed is a diving board.

Click, Clack, Moo rightly received a Caldecott Award in 2001 and was named one of the Best Children's Book by Publisher's Weekly. For an extra treat, watch the animated version at BookFlix. Randy Travis narrates and brings just the right amount of hayseed hysteria to Farmer Brown's plight.


About the author: Doreen was born and raised in New York. She got her sense of humor from her dad, a New York police officer. His tales of the street made her want to become an officer or an FBI agent, until she realized she wasn't brave enough to go through with it. So she went into publishing.

Right before attending law school, her father got sick and passed away. A few weeks later she woke up one night and wrote Click, Clack, Moo, which cheered her up because it made her laugh like her father used to.

By the time she got out of law school, her book was published and won awards. She went on to write nine more books, some featuring the stars of Click, Clack, Moo. Her Diary Of books—Spider, Fly, and Worm—are funny and gross, two things that appeal to most children.

She lives in New York with her husband and two daughters. Visit her Web site for more information.