Dave, Don’t Give Up!
Olaf Falafel
Walker Books

Dave is a beetle with a very strange job. He has to roll a massive ball of dung to the top of a very steep hill. Why you might wonder, but you’ll likely receive the same response he gives to the worms that ask: “Don’t ask me why, it’s just what I do.” (Clearly they’re unaware of the specific kind of beetle that Dave is).

At least the weather is good: there’s no wind to impede him so off he sets ‘HRRRGGG!!!NNNNGGG!!!’ and the dung ball begins to move. After a while he encounters a chicken crossing the road but he passes the fowl successfully and continues upwards. By now the hill feels steeper and so his task is more difficult. Then a meerkat eating a sandwich splodges the marmalade in his path and on his head making his job ten times more tricky. Dave has had enough and decides to quit but as he’s about to return home his inner voice tells him not to give up, so off he goes onwards and upwards. Further obstacles impede his progress

but each time he announces he’s quitting that inner voice tells him to keep going until finally, he’s almost at the top. One more push is all that’s needed but disaster strikes and Dave is sent hurtling right back from whence he started. The words from within fail to come and a devastated Dave heads homewards. Then he hears two tiny voices with words of encouragement and more: it’s his offspring. The ball starts rolling yet again: will it finally make it to the summit?

There’s a hilarious comment from one of the little beetles that is sure to make both young listeners and adult sharers giggle. Poo, persistence, positive thinking and perhaps parenting are key ingredients in this one.