Click, Clack, Quackity-Quack (An Alphabetical Adventure)

The animals in Farmer Brown's barn and farmyard get ready for a fun event in this engaging alphabet book. From the first page, on which the "animals awake," through the final sequence, in which they are catching some "zzzzzzzs," their actions are described in brief snippets of text, arranged alphabetically.

Having enjoyed author Doreen Cronin and illustrator Betsy Lewin's previous tales about this animal crew and their madcap adventures, I was curious to see what they would do with the alphabet-book format. Overall, I found Click, Clack, Quackity-Quack: An Alphabetical Adventure quite entertaining, and appreciated the fact that it was more of a story, and less of a recitation of letters, with corresponding objects. The artwork is show more amusing, capturing the humor of the tale. Recommended to fans of Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type and its sequels, especially if they are in the market for an alphabet book. show less

The barnyard animals wake up to a brand new day. The cows (of Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type fame) are busy typing again clickety-clack, and their note has the animals atwitter. There’s a “duck dashing,” even “eggs emptying” as ducklings hatch from their eggs “flippity-flip!” to join the fun, “goats grooming,” with “hens helping”, and so on in an energetic and silly romp through the alphabet. This whimsical journey through the alphabet comes from the author-illustrator team that gave us the Caldecott Honor book Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type (2000) and its 2002 sequel, Giggle, Giggle, Quack. This new light-hearted and funny alphabetical adventure is sure to have children giggling (and perhaps even quacking!) show more along at the mayhem that ensues as the farm empties out for the picnic. Click, Clack, Quackity-Quack: An Alphabetical Adventure takes a fresh approach to teaching children their letters. However, this book is probably better suited to children who either have already learned to identify upper- and lower-case letters, or perhaps own other alphabet book sets. For one thing, Click, Clack, Quackity-Quack only features lower-case letters. show less

A cute alphabetical adventure with the animals from the popular picture book Click, Clack, Moo that children familiar with the authors will enjoy. I thought the illustrations were charming and well suited to the text. I think alphabet books can often become tedious or too long, but this one is just light enough that it's easy to get through and remains entertaining throughout. Kids who have read other stories by these authors will appreciate the familiar characters.

I liked how this alphabet book had a plot to figure out. The reader wondered through the whole book what duck was up to. I also really liked how phrases, not just words were chosen for each letter (ie: Mice munching, nibbling nibbles).

In this alphabet concept book the reader sees what various animals on a farm do throughout the day. As each letter is introduced there is another animal or group of animals doing something different, until all of the animals attend a picnic together, get sleepy, and fall asleep. Making use of alliteration, the authors introduce each letter by way of short, one to four word lines about the animals. Some pages contain more than one alphabet letter, but the book still does not exceed four words per page. Because of the book’s pacing, young children being read to are not likely to get bored of the illustrations before the reader has finished reading the page. Similarly, the short text makes it possible to cover the entire alphabet in a show more short period of time, so young readers will not tire of the concept before finishing the story. The illustrations vary greatly; there are a plethora of colors used in the cartoon art-like drawings that depict animals doing human-like things: typing, carrying umbrellas, and having a picnic, to name a few. These sweet, lovable, silly animals are a great way to introduce children to the alphabet! show less

Very cute, each letter of the alphabet corresponds to the animals action, the cutest part is the end Z for zzzzzzzzzzzzzz sleeping animals. Illustrations are as always for a Cronin/Lewin book delightful! Great way to learn ABC's and verbs.

Animal illustrations throughout the book are engaging and often amusing, but too often they seem distracting and extraneous to the overall story. As an example, the G-J pages are a hodge-podge of action that seems only vaguely related to the picnic, and it culminates with a confusing depiction of the Duck jumping over an inch-worm that seems to be jumping at the same time. The page carried by the duck disappears completely from R through W (6 pages), and by the time it is revealed at X its significance may have been forgotten by the reader.