Clickety clack - Softcover

Robert Spence

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0439165776 ISBN 13: 9780439165778

Publisher: Scholastic, 2000

Synopsis

A little black train goes down the track. Clickety clack, clickety clack. There are chatting yaks, seven tumbling acrobats, a troupe of ducks going quack quack quack, and even some elephants on the little black train going down the track. With each new stop, the train gets more and more crowded, and noisier and noisier. Unfortunately for Driver Zach, two little mice give him a headache attack! This bright and colorful ride is packed with rhymes that will have even the littlest passengers chiming along.

"The words bounce along to the rhythm of a train on its way, and the swell of the sound effects makes this a joy to read aloud."
-Kirkus Reviews

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

Buoyant and full of childlike fun, this first book for the husband-and-wife authors as well as the illustrator takes a simple premise and goes full steam ahead. Cumulative verse introduces a train's posse of passengers, all of them noisy: "Elephants stomp in two big packs/ And the troupe of ducks goes quack quack quack/ While dancing around the acrobats/ Who sing on the cars with talking yaks,/ And a red caboose is in the back/ Of the little black train going down the track./ Clickety clack, clickety clack." Mayhem threatens when two mischievous mice light fireworks on the roof of the cabooseAbut Driver Zach quickly restores order (and quiet) by telling everyone to "pipe down" or "we'll change our tack./ We'll stop going forward... and we'll head right back." Spengler, having made the most of the passengers' high jinks, brings fun even into the silencing sequence. The ducks hold wings to beaks, as if whispering "Shh!" and the assembly appears just to be biding time until the next uproar (the final scene shows a third prankish mouse scrambling to join the train). The deeply saturated colors recall the intensity of Robert Bender's illustrations, but the lines are looser and the compositions have their own puckish sensibility. Kids will enjoy the good-natured decrescendo just as much as the invitation to turn up the volume. Ages 4-8. (May)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 2-The Spences build their story around tried-and-true motifs. As "A little black train goes down the track./Clickety clack, clickety clack," more and more passengers are added, ? la John Burningham's Mr. Gumpy's Motorcar (Crowell, 1976), and the noise level increases as well, ? la Ann McGovern's Too Much Noise (Houghton, 1967). The first passengers are talking yaks, who are joined by singing acrobats, quacking ducks, and a few stomping elephants for good measure. When two mice set off fireworks, the engineer has had enough and threatens to turn the train around. Properly chastened, the whole menagerie quiets down and the book trails off with just the "clickety clack" of the wheels. The action is set to a driving rhyme scheme. Spengler's richly hued paintings make the most of the humorous situations. The double-page spreads are crammed with roly-poly characters. The ending is a bit of a downer in that the travelers all look so sad after the engineer yells at them, in marked contrast to the good time they were having.
Judith Gloyer, Milwaukee Public Library
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Scholastic
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0439165776
• ISBN 13: 9780439165778
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 29