Click, Clack, Moo-Cows That Type

Title: Click, Clack, Moo
Cows that Type

Author: Doreen Cronin

Illustrator: Betsy Lewin

Medium: Watercolor

Genre: Fantasy (Cows, hens, and ducks that type? Impossible. It is considered as a fantasy when things happen that just can not happen in the real life)

Theme: 1. Whenever we have animals, we need to properly care for them with what they need and to be responsible for them. 2. With perseverance, when you work together with the others, you eventually will get something in the end.

Other Relevant Information: The book was nominated for Caldecott medal and received a silver
award (for honor) in 2001.

Summary: The farmer is forced to negotiate with his cows via antique
typewriters after his cows went on a strike.

Literary Elements:

Setting: The story happens at the farm along with several different farm animals: cows, hens and ducks. Lewin’s illustration shows an integral background of what the farm should look like. The farm looks realistic as any other farm would look like except for all animals that seems to be following the stereotype. Not all cows are black and white. Not all ducks are white. Not all
hens are white.

Style: The illustration and text does not match throughout the story. For example, there is one illustration where you see all hens lining up with their note that said, “Closed. No milk. No Eggs.” And the text did not mention any of that. So therefore, Lewin’s illustration shared more information than Cronin’s text. However, the text is easy to understand especially for children
and the author did very well by showing some humorous and witty text. For
example-“Cows that type? Impossible! Click, clack, moo.” However, the writing somewhat reminds me of Dr. Seuss because of its some repeating text.

Characterization: All characters are superficial in the story. We did not see how cows decided to go on a strike. We did not see the depth of cows gathering together to discuss of what to come up with demands for farmer Brown. Farmer Brown mostly displayed his frustration and puzzlement throughout the story. However, we do see their cows’ determination to get what they
want---it sent message to the reader, if the readers were to work with the others continually, they just might be able to get something in the end. The entire story happened in a third person view.

Plot: Both text and illustration in the story could either be viewed as progressive or circular. In the end, farmer Brown thought the strike was over but the ducks decided it was good idea to have a strike as well. Maybe the other farm animals will take the same role later on. Or the duck’s strike would be the last one. The story ended with a cliffhanger so it is up to the reader
to decide that how the story happened. The story focused on self versus society. The society as we know that it is fine to leave our farm animals in cold. However, farm animals disagreed and wanted to show farmer Brown that they needed to stay warm. Still, it was not a
logical resolution for cows’ problem---communicating with the farmer via a typewriter?!

Evaluation:While I liked the book as it did make me chuckle at some humorous scenes but the story might provide a wrong message for young children. Is the author trying to tell children that it is okay to withhold something back until they get something? I would view that as a negative way to deal with conflicts. Still, there are other good messages that the author showed throughout the story—to work together in order to receive a reward and to consider the animals’ need. We may not be the same as animals but they do have needs that we might not think of. Another thing, I thought I would use this book to introduce animal cruelty for elementary students as they will begin to learn about animal cruelty. Maybe not. Just a thought....