42. The Sheep, the Rooster, and the Duck

The Sheep, the Rooster, and The Duck. Matt Phelan. 2022. 240 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: A carriage drawn by a single horse sped down a forest road. 

Premise/plot: The Sheep, the Rooster, and the Duck is historical fantasy set in nineteenth century France. (The prologue is set in 1783, the main action occurs two years later.) In some ways, it can best be described as animal fantasy. It does star a talking sheep, rooster, and duck after all. But it is so much more than that. The animals enlist two young children--a boy and a girl--to help them battle evil, if you will. The plot centers around protecting Benjamin Franklin (who is still in France) and to some extent saving the world. So it's animal fantasy, but it's more than animal fantasy if that makes any kind of sense.

My thoughts: I wanted to love this one. I did. I thought it sounded outlandish yet perfectly delightful. Yet it remains an almost for me. I almost fell head over heels in love with the characters. I almost fell in with the logic of this one. But for whatever reason it left me puzzled and confused here and there. Not a lot. Just a tad bit here, a tiny bit there. Enough that it started to add up slowly but surely. Perhaps a second reading would help. OR perhaps if the book included a list of characters and the tiniest clues to help me keep every person well placed in my mind. I understand the book is supposed to be about possible spies and definite deceptions and possible betrayals and such. So perhaps readers are supposed to be left guessing???

I still enjoyed this one more than not. Just not wholeheartedly.

 

© 2022 Becky Laney of Young Readers