Farmer Brown has a problem. Not only have his cows taken up… typing, but they’ve used their newfound skill to put their hooves down. The barn, they say, in typewritten notes tacked to its door, is cold. And unless Farmer Brown supplies them with some electric blankets to help them brace the herd against the biting chill? Well? No more milk. 

Not one to be cowed by the threats of… cows, Farmer Brown lets the herd know it’s a no-go. But then hens cluck up, too, hatching a plan to join the cows. No blankets? No eggs.

What’s a Farmer Brown to do? 

‘Little Voices, Big Ideas’ organizes itself around the idea that children’s picture books build solidarity–and allow us to have collective conversations–brothers and sisters and grownups, alike–about the big ideas that strike chords in all of our hearts.

This season, the big deal of democracy. Each episode, we explore a story with themes like justice, liberty, and speaking truth to power… or, speaking MOO to power.

On this episode, Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin’s Caldecott Award-winning book, Click Clack, Moo: Cows That Type. Published in 2000, this barn-raiser of a book uses anthropomorphism (that’s when non-human things, like cows, take on human characteristics, like announcing a milk-strike through type-written notes) to help the youngest among us understand labor moooovements. 

Joining the herd on this episode are children’s book author and historian, Freddie Evans, philosophy professor to the youngest among us, Thomas Wartenberg, and literacy scholar and writer, Kyley Pulphus. We will also hear from 7-year-old JoJo and his uncle James, and from some familiar voices from season 1, host Sarah DeBacher’s 9- and 12-year-old sons, Charlie and Robin. 

We hope you’ll join us, too! Find Click Clack Moo, Cows that Type at your local library and go with us… beyond the bedtime story.