Modern Fantasy

Click, Clack, Moo Cows That Type

Written By: Doreen Cronin

Illustrated By: Betsy Lewin

Scholastic Inc. 2000

32 pages

Modern Fantasy

              Modern Fantasy is geared toward people that like to use their imagination.  With these books you have to use your imagination to picture the events happening. With modern fantasy picture books it is a little easier because of the pictures. If you are reading a chapter book you have to imagine these things happening in your mind as you read. Chapter books will give you a lot of details to help you make these images in your mind. I found this book myself by ordering from scholastic. This book came in a book pack. I didn’t buy the pack for this book but instantly fell in love with it when I read it. This book is about the farmer Browns cows that are giving him some problems. They are typing, what does he see when he gets to the door? A note that demands electric blankets for the cows and until they get them NO MILK! The farmer was upset. The next day the chickens refused eggs until they got electric blankets as well. The farmer proposes an offer and the cows agree to give the type writer up if they get the blankets. The cows agree. They get their blankets but does the farmer get the type writer? Does another animal get their hands on it? Find Click, Clack, Moo Cows That Type in your library today!

              For this book the illustrator states she used brush drawings using watercolors on trace paper. You can tell by the pictures that she used brush drawings. The pictures lines are blurred and not perfect. The drawings are beautiful and shows children their art doesn’t have to be perfect. The colors used are proper colors for the animals and the farm life depicted. The pictures help students imagine what this would look like if it was real.

              This book is appropriate for preschool to third grade students.  You can use this book as a writing prompt. You can pose the question, “What would you ask for if you were the cows talking to Farmer Brown?”  You can have the students do an art activity using this book. You can have them use brush drawings like the illustrator to make an image of their own farm. Another activity is to compare and contrast the farm in this book to a real life farm. Talk about the things that are the same and different. This will be easy for students since the book is a fantasy.