Description
Chasing cows and pigs. Mockery. Rude songs. Piracy, bullying, revenge, warfare and general thuggery.
This is the list of approved duck activities and it does NOT include poetry.
The ducks of Little Dismal are angry. A scruffy chicken called Clara has been telling lies about them. They need revenge.
Enter Rita - a duck with the soul of a poet. After an embarrassing talent night, Rita sees revenge on Clara as a chance to restore her reputation.
But Rita finds more than revenge on her mission. She uncovers a dastardly plan to chook-nap the clever chicken that will take them both a long way from home.
Review
After the fame that came the way of Clara the chicken in A Clue for Clara, it’s time for the ducks to take revenge...
Rita sees her chance to stand up and make amends for embarrassing the other ducks at the talent show, and prove to her family that she will not recite poetry, which is against the rules!
Rita sets out to find Clara and have revenge on her. She finds Clara, and her human army, at school so Rita decides that she should attach herself to her own small human. She decides on Tracy, who seems to be always alone, and attempts to train her in unarmed combat so that she can help Rita exact revenge. But kind hearted Rita doesn’t really have a plan, and communicating with humans is much harder than she thought!
With the mysterious ‘reporter’ Delphine in town, things turn interesting. What is she up to and is she really a reporter, or is there more to Delphine than she is letting on?
There is far more to this story than it just being about ducks and chickens. Through the friendship that Tracy builds with Rita, she realises that she wasn't very nice to Clara’s human Olive, and that maybe she has some explaining of her own to do and might need to make amends herself.
It is a wonderful, humorous, stand-alone story about friendship, family, mystery, jealousy, standing up for others and being true to who you really are. It has delightful characters, and readers in Year 3 and up will thoroughly enjoy this story.
Reviewed by Sam
