Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin
By Jimmy Vee
Book Reviews By The Book Explorer Jimmy Vee
and his bookworm buddy, Readit
Hey, Story Seekers!
Farmer Brown has cows.
Normal.
His cows have a typewriter.
Less normal.
His cows have demands.
We have a situation.
We're exploring Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type, written by Doreen Cronin with pictures by Betsy Lewin, a farm story in which the cows discover written communication, collective bargaining, and the tremendous negotiating power of refusing to produce milk.
Readit would like to know where the cows learned to type.
I would too.
But I suspect asking questions is only going to make this stranger.
Book Breakdown
Farmer Brown starts hearing a noise from the barn.
Click, clack, moo.
Click, clack, moo.
Clickety, clack, moo.
His cows are typing.
Farmer Brown can't believe it.
Reasonable.
Then the notes start arriving.
The barn is cold at night, the cows explain. They would like electric blankets.
Farmer Brown says no.
Also reasonable.
Unfortunately for Farmer Brown, the cows have discovered leverage.
No electric blankets?
No milk.
Then the hens join them.
No eggs.
Farmer Brown now has a full barnyard work stoppage on his hands.
The notes go back and forth. Farmer Brown gets angry. The animals don't budge. Eventually Duck steps in as a neutral party and carries a compromise between the two sides.
The cows will trade the typewriter for electric blankets.
Deal. Everybody wins.
Well. Almost everybody.
Because Duck gets the typewriter.
And Duck has been paying attention.
That's the last turn of the screw. The cows weren't the end of Farmer Brown's problems.
They were training the next negotiator.
Doreen Cronin keeps the language perfectly straight while the situation gets more ridiculous by the page. Nobody in this book seems especially amazed that cows have developed literacy, typing skills and a bargaining position.
The problem is the blankets.
That's what makes it funny.
And Betsy Lewin knows exactly what Farmer Brown should look like while it happens. Frazzled. Offended. Outmaneuvered by livestock. Her loose watercolors give the animals just enough expression to tell you they are not fooling around. The cows look organized. Farmer Brown looks like a man losing an argument he didn't know he'd entered.
Duck looks like Duck.
Which, by the last page, turns out to be something we should have worried about a lot earlier.
For teachers and librarians: ATOS 2.3 · Fountas & Pinnell M · 403 words · ages 4 to 8, grades PreK to 3. Atheneum, 2000, thirty-two pages, and a 2001 Caldecott Honor. On the Lexile: the publisher lists AD160L for the hardcover and other databases index it at 470L, so take the number loosely and the F&P level seriously.
Jungle Jimmy's Journal
Here's what I love about this one.
The cows don't throw a fit.
They write a memo.
That's so much funnier. Picture Farmer Brown marching into the barn braced for some mooing and finding correspondence.
Dear Farmer Brown...
Uh-oh.
And notice the cows have a legitimate complaint. They're cold. Farmer Brown doesn't like their solution.
Okay. Now what?
That's where a very silly book slips in some genuinely useful thinking. Two sides want different things. The cows have something Farmer Brown needs. Farmer Brown has something the cows want. Duck carries messages. Somebody eventually proposes a trade.
You can call that negotiation if you like. I'd call it figuring out how to get the milk moving again.
Kids understand this instantly, because they negotiate constantly.
One more story.
Five more minutes.
I'll clean this up if I can do that.
Can we make a deal?
Nobody has to announce today's lesson. The cows already started it.
For a read-aloud you've also got that glorious little machine. Click, clack, moo. Once the kids know it's coming, hand it over. That repetition earns its place, because it isn't filler. Every time the typewriter starts up, Farmer Brown is about to have a new problem.
And then Cronin saves the best move for Duck.
I won't dress it up.
Duck is sneaky. He volunteers as the neutral messenger, helps everybody settle, ends up holding the typewriter, and you can see the thought arrive.
Interesting.
My turn.
Beautiful.
Readit's Review
The cows are SMART.
They don't just say moo until Farmer Brown figures it out.
They TYPE HIM A NOTE.
Also, I think Farmer Brown should have known not to give Duck the typewriter.
Why would you do that?
The cows just stopped giving you milk because of that thing.
Then you hand it to a DUCK?
No.
Take the typewriter away.
I like the notes because you get to see what the cows are asking for, and I like when the hens join them.
Now Farmer Brown has no milk AND no eggs.
What is he eating for breakfast?
And I want to make a sign for my room that says:
NO CLEAN ROOM.
NO SOCKS.
Actually, I need to work on my demands.
What Others Think
Readers have had twenty-five years to decide whether these cows still work.
They do. Goodreads shows 4.28 out of 5 from 96,197 ratings and more than 3,500 written reviews.
And there is a very specific thing that happens in this book's reviews, which is that grown-ups cannot resist the joke.
Philip, complete review: "Perhaps the most comprehensive book ever written on understanding labor dispute."
Elizabeth: "HA HA! Workers of the world unite! I'm not sure how I accidentally checked out this book on how to explain union movements to your toddler, but this was a h-i-l-a-r-i-o-u-s, bizarre, and unexpected read."
And Jackie, a librarian, has thought several steps further than the book does: "You gotta watch out for those smart cows. Once they realize their power over farmers, there is no end to what they might ask for. Room service. Extra towels. Facials."
That's the adult half of this book working exactly as designed.
The kid half is simpler and just as reliable. Tim reports it's one of his daughter's favorites, offers the labor-relations explanation, then admits the truth: it's probably because "the cows, chickens and ducks are funny."
Anne names the moment that lands: "All of my kids have loved this one! Especially the ending where Duck takes off with the typewriter!"
One honest note on the art. Calista liked the book and still says, "I don't think the artwork is worthy of a Caldecott, but the story is wonderful."
Lewin's watercolors are loose and quick, and if you like your picture books lush you may agree with her. I don't, but it's a fair thing to notice before you buy.
And one practical warning nobody had to give in 2000: your kid may need you to explain what a typewriter is. Tell them it's a laptop that prints everything immediately and has no YouTube. Close enough to keep moving.
Belly Laugh Scale
4 out of 5: Big-Time Belly Laughs
Terrific comic premise, and Cronin doesn't wreck it by trying too hard.
Cows typing. Cows making demands. Hens joining the strike. Farmer Brown losing control of his own farm one typed note at a time.
Then Duck.
Especially Duck.
The repetition gives kids something to own, Lewin's expressions carry plenty of laughs, and the grown-up reading it gets an entirely different joke running underneath.
Four out of five.
Duck prevented a 5.
I don't trust him.
Final Explorer Verdict
I'd hand Click, Clack, Moo to kids around 4 to 8, and it's especially good for a preschool or early elementary read-aloud where the room can own the sounds.
Give them the click.
Give them the clack.
Definitely give them the moo.
Teachers can get a genuinely good conversation out of this without squeezing the fun out of it. Ask what the cows want. Ask what Farmer Brown wants. Ask whether the deal is fair. Ask why Duck makes a good messenger.
Then ask what Farmer Brown should have done with that typewriter.
I suspect the room will have opinions.
Cronin gives kids a problem they already understand and dresses it in complete nonsense. Lewin gives the nonsense faces. Together they make a story about disagreement, leverage, communication and compromise, plus one duck who has clearly been taking notes.
That's a lot to get out of 403 words and a herd of cold cows.
Now somebody please unplug the typewriter.
Duck is looking at it again.
Keep exploring, Story Seekers!
Jungle Jimmy & Readit