Squabble and Squeak
Raahat Kaduji
Alison Green Books

Rana the red panda is annoyed. A noisy parakeet has moved into her tree and woken her up with his ‘squawks and chirp-chirp SCREECH!’ sounds. Before long the noises have caused Rana to spill her tea and spoil her painting. Parakeet tries explaining in his own way but Rana can’t understand. She decides to retaliate and sets off into the forest to collect as many noisy objects as she can. She discovers some scratchy, scratchy pine cones, then some bamboo sticks that make a tappety, tappety, TAP! sound;

neither is sufficiently noisy so she moves on to the river. There, are lots of clackety, clackety CLACKing pebbles that are just right. She gathers all her sound makers in her paws and sets off home to her tree.

Unbeknown however, there’s a very large, very quiet and very fierce looking tiger close behind. In her excitement, Rana fails to notice the pursuer, but on reaching her tree Parakeet starts screeching louder than ever. Slightly scoffing at the sound, Rana announces that she’s going to make way more noise. Suddenly however, she stops: something sounds strange. What is Parakeet trying to tell her. It’s the furry tiger and Rana offers it some bamboo; but bamboo is not what the tiger desires. Up her tree scrambles the little panda and now for the very first time Rana understands what Paraket is saying. They both make loud sounds and before long a host of very noisy parakeets fly into view. Now it’s the tiger’s turn to complain about the terrible noise. Off he flees into the forest leaving an elated Rana and parakeets.

Down flies Parakeet eager to learn why Rana has collected so much stuff. she tells him and goes on to suggest they work together to make a tiger scarer. Before long they’ve created a wonderful wind chime and hung it on their tree. But which is noisier, Parakeet or the wind chime? I wonder …

A warm-hearted story about finding a way to understand one another and becoming friends. With playful scenes executed in beautiful colours and so many noises for young listeners to join in with, this is a fun read aloud.

uni @scholasticuk