Zip Zap Wickety Wack: A Story About Sharing

81Q6W2-2EwL
Age Range
4+
Release Date
September 30, 2025
ISBN
978-0823458714
Buy This Book
     
New Yorker cartoonist Matthew Diffee makes his children’s book debut with this laugh-out-loud twist on the classic animal sound book.

The cow says “moo.” The horse says “neigh.” Everyone can agree on these.

But when the sheep says “baa,” the goat cuts in. The goat also says “baa.” Now what? No one wants to share their sound!

The sheep has an idea—he’ll just say something no one’s ever said before: “zip zap wickety wack bing bang walla balla flip flap yackety yack.” But an otherworldly visitor shows up to lay claim to this sound, too—and the alien doesn't want to share his identity either.

When the alien proposes a radical new way forward, the sheep and the goat find a compromise—and it may sound familiar to adult readers . . .

Editor review

1 review
Wiffle While You Work
(Updated: June 04, 2026)
Overall rating
 
5.0
Plot
 
5.0
Characters
 
5.0
Writing Style
 
5.0
Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)
 
5.0
A barnyard full of very realistically depicted animals is embroiled in a dispute; the sheep and the goat both stake claim to saying "baa". Clearly, this is a critically important distinction, and they can't possibly say the same thing. But what to do? The dog opines that the two should share the "baa" or neither of them can say it. The two think about saying other things, but the pig is unwilling to give up "oink", and the duck wants to keep "quack". The sheep finally decides to find something that no one has ever said, which ends up being "zip zap Wickety Wack bing bang walla balla flip flap yackety yack wing ding dilly". Of course, right after his pronouncement, a flying saucer shows up with an alien who claims that the sheep's new phrase is what HE says. While he encourages the two animals to "wiffle" (share), he is unwilling to do so himself, and is quite upset when the animals express surprise that he has a planet all to himself. The alien storms off at the very idea that he wiffle anything, which the animals think is sad. The sheep and the goat decide that they can wiffle "baa" after all.
Good Points
The illustrations in this are quite lovely, and the author's note describing his walks through the Texas countryside to the school bus explains nicely why the pictures are so realistic. The color palette is very dusty and brown, with occasional washes of green or pops of red. The wax and color pencil drawings are a great serious, artistic foil to the generally wacky quality of the text.

Also not surprising is that Diffee has produced hundreds of cartoons for The New Yorker, which he describes as "big-shot fancy-pants". Some of the humor might go over children's heads but will be much appreciated by the adults; the kids, after all can giggle over Zip Zap Wickety Wack and the miffed alien. I know just the friend (who has a PhD in Classical history) who will take great glee in reading this to his grandchildren.

There are as many barnyard picture books as there are pieces of hay in a stack, but this is a sharp and funny look at "wiffling" that could share a stall with other snidely funny farm books like Falatko's Help Wanted: One Rooster or Cronin's Click, Clack Moo: Cows That Type.
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