posted on 25 Apr 2019

Toad Attack by Patrice Lawrence

You can pretty much guarantee it’s not going to be an ordinary day when you find your town is being overrun by flying toads. Yes, I said flying toads.

This is what is happening to the good folk of Upper Dab and from the moment young Leo Hogg gets a toad on his head on that fateful Wednesday morning, all sorts of mayhem breaks loose. But for Leo and his best friend, Rosa, this is all a great adventure – especially as Rosa’s dad, Dad Raj who presents the TV nature programme ‘Warts and All’, is a super expert on these amphibians. In fact Rosa has sort of adopted one of the toads for herself – she’s called it Twerky – so that Dad Raj can study its behaviour and try and find out where on Earth they have come from.

Meanwhile at Leo’s school there is great excitement about the Dab’s Best Blooms competition which they hope to win – well, that is until the plague of toads turns out to be related partly to the infamous Cane Toad that will pretty much eat its way through everything.

As the toads start to multiply and munch their way across town eating all vegetation in sight, including the resident’s gardens and the prized blooms of the other entries to the competition, they rapidly advance on Head Teacher, Mr Pringle’s prized school garden – and he’ll go to almost any lengths to save his flowers.

But, of course, the residents of Upper Dab are getting heartily sick of toads by this point and are threatening to take matters into their own hands. Things start to turn mean and it can't be good when the most popular phrase on the residents lips is EXPLODE A TOAD!’? What part do crows have to play in this? What exactly is in Plum Pringle’s cat box? Can the toads be saved from the angry residents of Upper Dab and returned to their natural habitat?

It’s all there for you to find out for yourself by reading this delightful offering from the talented Patrice Lawrence. The book comes in the Barrington Stoke ‘super readable’ series and is guided for readers of 8+ - although I suspect younger children will enjoy reading it with an adult too.

There are excellent black and white illustrations from Becka Moor sprinkled throughout the story and I must say it’s hats off to the author for providing real diversity in the characters without making any of their specific characteristics an ‘issue’.

 

Terry Potter

April 2019