{"id":45819,"date":"2025-10-25T21:48:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T01:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=45819"},"modified":"2025-10-25T21:50:45","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T01:50:45","slug":"review-of-zip-zap-wickety-wack-by-matthew-diffee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=45819","title":{"rendered":"Review of Zip Zap Wickety Wack, by Matthew Diffee"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Zip Zap Wickety Wack<\/p>\n

A Story About Sharing<\/em><\/p>\n

by Matthew Diffee<\/p>\n

Neal Porter Books (Holiday House), 2025. 48 pages.
\nReview written October 24, 2025, from a library book.
\nStarred Review<\/p>\n

This absolutely brilliant picture book makes me want to do story times again.<\/p>\n

I’ve always loved books that subvert animal sounds. The classic Bark, George!<\/a><\/em> by Jules Feiffer, was one of the first books my kid could read. And I loved to bring out The Cow That Went Oink<\/em>, by Bernard Most, for story times. Zip Zap Wickety Wack<\/em> reminds me of Froodle<\/a><\/em>, by Antoinette Portis, which was a big hit when I gave it to my nieces. [Look at that! Froodle<\/em> was also edited by Neal Porter. No wonder the similar brilliance.]<\/p>\n

In this case, the book begins very deadpan. Completely traditional pictures and standard text tell us:<\/p>\n

The cow says, “Moo.”
\nThe horse says, “Neigh.”
\nThe sheep says, “Baa.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Could have been written in the 1950s! Except on that very same page, the goat is looking up at the sheep picture above him.<\/p>\n

The goat says, “Wait a second. I say baa.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So there’s an argument. They don’t want to share.<\/p>\n

They start thinking of other things they could say, but oink, quack, cockadoodledoo and ribbit are already taken.<\/p>\n

So the sheep declares that he will think of something that no one has ever said. He does a lot of thinking and then gets a full spread declaring:<\/p>\n

“Zip Zap Wickety Wack
\nBing Bang Walla Balla
\nFlip Flap Yackety Yack
\nWing Ding Dilly!”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

See why I want to read this book in story time?<\/p>\n

But the book is only beginning to get silly at this point, because on the next spread we see a very small flying saucer coming to the farm. The alien inside says:<\/p>\n

I hate to be a bother, but zip zap wickety wack bing bang walla balla flip flap yackety yack wing ding dilly is what I say. Why don’t you just wiffle?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It turns out that wiffling is alienese for sharing.<\/p>\n

And how they work it out is still completely deadpan and utterly hilarious.<\/p>\n

And kids learn about sharing at the same time!<\/p>\n

Trust me, you’ll want to find this book, and if you can read it without reading aloud, you have more self-control than I do.<\/p>\n

matthewdiffee.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Picture_Books\/zip_zap_wickety_wack.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

Subscribe<\/a> for more reviews and talk about books.<\/p>\n

Join the conversation: What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zip Zap Wickety Wack A Story About Sharing by Matthew Diffee Neal Porter Books (Holiday House), 2025. 48 pages. Review written October 24, 2025, from a library book. Starred Review This absolutely brilliant picture book makes me want to do story times again. I’ve always loved books that subvert animal sounds. The classic Bark, George! […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,15,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-delightfully-silly","category-picture-book-review","category-starred-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45819"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45823,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45819\/revisions\/45823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}