Daring Duck by heather Hunt. Pub. Duck Creek Press, Imprint ling Publishing Ltd, 2022.

Dee is a young paradise duck with beautiful coloured plumage who lives with a colony of ducks in a protected wetland pond.

She watches the other ducks fight and squabble over territory and yearns for adventure away from everything and to find her own space. The older ducks warn her of duck shooters but Dee is courageous and leaves anyway.

She encounters the hard world very early with an encounter with an angry pukeko who kicks and scratches. She then imposes on a bittern who gives her a tip on how to avoid duck shooters “You are safe in the water but not in the sky, they can only shoot ducks who are flying up in the sky”.

Then she encounters a decoy duck and the danger begins. Check and see how Dee gets on.

Easy rhyming text and unique illustrations make for a very good picture book. The author clearly knows her ducks