The Sheep, the Rooster, and the Duck by Matt Phelan

A swashbuckling rooster, a designing sheep and a clever duck change history in Matt Phelan’s latest flight of fancy.

The Sheep, the Rooster, and the Duck by Matt Phelan. HarperCollins, 2022, 221 pages.

Reading Level: Middle School, ages 10-12

Recommended for: ages 8-12

Up, Up, and Away!

Any student of manned flight knows of the Montgolfier brothers, credited with the first successful experiments in aviation, via hot-air balloon, in 1783. They may even know the charming fact that the first airborne passengers were a sheep, a rooster, and a duck. These were obviously extraordinary animals, but just how extraordinary the record will show. Where there is injustice, subversion, and fraud in pre-revolutionary France, the intrepid trio will leap to the fray against evildoers.

Benjamin Franklin, the American emissary to the court of King Louis XVI, is one of the good guys, as are his fellow science enthusiasts,  Laviosier and Guillotin. But none of them are a match for the notorious Count Cagliostro, who has his eye upon a supposed ultimate weapon invented by Franklin and kept under wraps. The humans are clueless, so it’s up to our heroes to expose the plot and save Europe.

The book is hard to classify beyond Matt Phelan’s having a great time with his characters, almost all of which (even the title three) are historical. The exceptions are Emile, Franklin’s conscientious housekeeper, and Sophie, a daring young spy. Readers will learn something of history, but The Sheep, etc. can be enjoyed for its own fanciful self, as well as a fond salute to the arts and sciences: “Wonder casts a spell over all living creatures, great and small,” says Bernadette the sheep. “Just look at the skies at night and imagine what could be. Art, science, imagination . . . all create wonder.”

And of course, there are illustrations galore. This is Matt Phelan, after all.

Overall Rating: 4 (out of 5)

• Worldview/moral value: 3.5
• Artistic/literary value: 4.5

Read more about our ratings here.                 

Also at Redeemed Reader:

• Reviews: More by Matt Phelan: Snow White: a Graphic Novel, Around the World, Knights vs. Dinosaurs, and Bluffton.
• Reviews: More about the early days of flying: Up and Down, The Lindbergh Mouse, and The Wright Brothers: Nose-Diving into History.

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