Hit the Ball Duck

Jez Alborough’s ‘Duck’ stories seem to get better and better. This latest has the four pals off to the park for a game of bat and ball. Goat is pitcher and Duck – of course – bats first. His opening swipe sends the ball soaring up into a tree. What to do? A stick? suggests Frog. Hot-headed Duck, as usual, knows best: and inevitably it’s not long before the bat, and glove too, are stuck. With nothing left to throw, Frog’s second plan, an animal tower, could just be the solution. And it is, but not quite as planned.

Superbly controlled and paced rhyming couplets drive the action forward. Alborough gets his audience on side right from the start: we all anticipate Duck’s each and every move but still the tension is terrific and we sit glued to the set. Just brilliant.