Click, Clack, Surprise!

by Doreen Cronin, Betsy Lewin (Illustrator)

Overview

Little Duck learns how to celebrate his birthday with a little help from all the other animals on the farm in this charming picture book from the award-winning duo, Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin.

Happy first birthday, Little Duck!

Everyone wants to look their best for the party. But Little Duck has never had a birthday before—so how better to learn how to prepare than to do what all the other animals do! The sheep trim their wool—so Little Duck trims her feathers. The pigs need a mud bath—so Little Duck quish and quashes, too. All over the barnyard Little Duck snips, slurps, squishes, and shimmy shakes herself ready until...WHOOPS! It’s party picture time—and Little Duck is a big mess. No matter—it’s not something Farmer Brown’s frosted maple cake can’t fix!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781481470315
Publisher:	Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books
Publication date:	09/06/2016
Series:	Click, Clack Series
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	507,235
Product dimensions:	7.90(w) x 10.20(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	AD400L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Doreen Cronin is the author of many bestselling and New York Times bestselling picture books, including Click, Clack, Quack to School!; Click, Clack, Surprise!; Click, Clack, Ho, Ho, Ho; Click, Clack, Peep; Click, Clack, Boo!; Dooby Dooby Moo; Thump, Quack, Moo: A Whacky Adventure; Bounce; Wiggle; Duck for President; Giggle, Giggle, Quack; Bloom; and the Caldecott Honor Book Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type as well as The Chicken Squad series and Cyclone. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. Visit her at DoreenCronin.com.

Betsy Lewin is the Caldecott Honor–winning illustrator of Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type and its sequels, including Click, Clack, Quack to School!; Click, Clack, Ho, Ho, Ho; Click, Clack, Peep; Click, Clack, Boo!; Giggle, Giggle, Quack; Duck for President; Dooby Dooby Moo; and Thump, Quack, Moo; in addition to a number of other picture books, including So, What’s It Like to Be a Cat? and Where Is Tippy Toes?. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Editorial Reviews

08/08/2016
In this addition to the series that began with Click, Clack, Moo, it’s Little Duck’s birthday, and the farm animals are busy getting ready. Cronin merrily describes their preparations in repeating language (“The chickens take a dust bath to look their best. They shimmy-shake, shimmy-shake, shimmy-shake clean”), but the real fun comes as Little Duck mimics each animal, getting frizzier, dustier, and muddier in the process. Lewin adeptly portrays the story’s physical comedy in swoopy mixed-media scenes that build to a “Happy Birthday to... ewww!” finale. It’s goofy birthday fun that will probably have some readers shimmy-shaking and slurp-a-lurping along with the animals. Ages 4–8. Agent: Holly McGhee, Pippin Properties. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Farmer Brown’s barnyard animals are still going strong in the series that started with the hilarious Click,
Clack, Moo (2000). Once again the action in the barnyard comes to life with endearingly wacky pen, ink,
and watercolor illustrations and fun-on-the-tongue word combinations (like slurp-a-lurp and snippety-clip
). It’s Little Duck’s first birthday, and the farm is abuzz with preparations. Little Duck really wants to
shine, so he imitates the grooming of the other animals. Things start off well with Big Duck, who rub-adubs
clean in a bubble bath in one of Farmer Brown’s buckets. But when the sheep trim their wool, Little
Duck shears his own feathers; and his imitation of the chickens’ dust bath leaves him a mess. The pattern
continues until Little Duck arrives, thoroughly disheveled, at his party to a chorus of “Happy Birthday to .
. . ewww!” It’s no surprise that the wordplay, repetition, and silly situations created by Cronin and Lewin
make for another fantastic read-aloud in the Click, Clack, Moo cannon.
— Connie Fletcher

October 6, 2016 - Booklist online

11/01/2016
PreS-Gr 1—In the 11th "Click, Clack" book by Cronin and Lewin, Farmer Brown and the animals are preparing for Little Duck's birthday party. Once the cake is baked, the decorations hung, and the games chosen, the animals focus on spiffing themselves up for the event. In turn, the duck, sheep, cat, chickens, and pigs "rub-a-dub," "snippity-clip," "slurp-a-lurp," "shimmy-shake," and "squish and squash" clean. Little Duck follows their example, ending with a dust bath and a roll in a mud puddle. Readers are likely to get caught up in the onomatopoeic fun and may be inspired by Lewin's energetic watercolors to wiggle, shake, and strut along with the animals. VERDICT Sure to be a lively storytime read-aloud. Recommended for most picture book collections.—Jennifer Costa, Cambridge Public Library, MA

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