Clickety Clack

A train-ride adventure has the very patient Driver Zach picking up groups of very silly passengers, including dancing ducks, talking yaks, and two packs of elephants that really start a ruckus when two mischievous mice climb aboard.

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.

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.

A train load of wild and wacky animals gets so noisy that the engineer has to shout to get them to quiet down. The little black train picks up yaks, acrobats, a troupe of ducks, and stomping elephants as passengers. But when two mice that are in to fireworks climb aboard, the engineer threatens to stop the whole train. `` `Keep it down!' yells Driver Zach. `You're giving me a headache attack!' '' Everyone quickly hushes up, and soon, ``the only sound you hear, in fact,/is the sound of the wheels on the railroad track. Clickety clack, clickety clack.'' 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. Spengler's robust illustrations capture an antic cast of passengers, conveying the action as much through composition as color. (Picture book. 4-8) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.