Duck and his friends have already a number of serious disasters: Duck’s exuberance tends to get the better of him. Here, the friends are off to play with bat and ball. Everyone has a job to do, Goat will bowl, Sheep can catch, Frog will call when Duck is out and, Duck will bat. But Duck’s first whack sends the ball flying high into a tree where it firmly sticks. How the animals get the ball out of the tree involves one calamity after another before the game can resume. Told in bouncing rhyming couplets which perfectly capture the daftness of the plot, this makes perfect reading aloud. (2+)
Jez Alborough is a hugely popular, award-winning author and illustrator of books for children, well-known for his stories about Bobo the chimp, star of Hug, Tall and Yes, as well as his tales about Eddy and the Bear, which inspired a BAFTA-winning animated TV series. He lives in Richmond, Surrey.
