CLICK, CLACK, PEEP!
by Doreen Cronin ; illustrated by Betsy Lewin
Poor Farmer Brown has a new animal to contend with, and this one is disrupting the whole barn!
The farm is quiet. All of the animals are intently watching an egg, waiting for it to hatch. “Not a moo. / Not a click. / Not an oink. / Not a quack. // Not a baa. / Not a cluck. / Not a thing. / Then…a crack.” Out pops Baby Duck! The little fuzzball waddles and plays and jumps and laughs. But the one thing Baby Duck does not do is sleep. Her incessant peep, peep, peeping is keeping the whole barnyard awake. (With bleary eyes and mouths stretched open wide in incredible yawns, Lewin’s animals defy any reader not to do the same.) In a tried-and-true method of dealing with sleepless infants everywhere, Duck finally finds a way to lull Baby Duck to sleep—with the help of a tractor. Alas, the farm fence and crops don’t fare as well. This author/illustrator duo rarely disappoints, but the rhythm stumbles a bit in its transitions, making this read-aloud not as seamless as others in the barnyard collection.
Nevertheless, the familiar high jinks of this parental Duck and his farmyard companions will provoke plenty of giggles. (Picture book. 3-6)