Adventures in Fosterland 5 – Billie the Wild Child

Hannah Shaw's Billie the Wild Child is a funny animal story for 5 year olds about a very small duckling who refuses to be anybody's pet.

What happens

Billie grew up at Sunny Lake with seven other ducklings. Then they all waddle into a drainage pipe and get stuck. Somebody pulls them out, but Billie is the only one carried off to the Small Pets room (and he's furious about it).

A guinea pig called Tofu Taco the Third tells him he must be a pet. Billie is outraged. Before long he's in Fosterland, where a one-eyed white cat called Eloise says hello.

Then two new ducklings arrive. Marlie and Charlie are big, bright yellow Pekin sisters who sing about blueberries and cream. They tell Billie only wild ducklings have stripes. He twists round to look at his own back and he's yellow all over!

So is he a pet duck or a wild one? That question runs right through the story. Billie flaps his tiny wings every single day, even though everyone tells him pet ducks can't fly.

He's a proper little grump and it's very funny. He stomps his foot and shouts that he is NOT cute (which only makes him cuter). He calls the foster carer "the guard". He teaches the sisters to catch flies, which he calls sky raisins.

There are five kittens in the house too, who make paper hats on a rainy day. Grown-ups might spot that their names come from Jabberwocky. Billie would much rather be out in the puddles. Then he sees Rufus through the window, a tomcat who lives outside.

Eloise has a lovely little poem about lap cats and wild ones, and it's the heart of the book. Who gets to decide where you belong?

Billie's big escape is told as a real adventure. He squeezes out through the letterbox, gets chased round a playground and meets Rufus and an opossum called Pinkie (at first he thinks she's just a very odd-looking cat). A cheeky raid on an Italian restaurant is played for laughs.

It's the fifth Fosterland book, but Billie's story starts from scratch. If your reader has ever dug their heels in about who they are, they'll be cheering him on.

What to read next

For another baby animal in a muddle about what he is, try Emmett and Jez, where Fosterland began. Emmett is a lost piglet who gets told he must be a foster kitten, and he's very happy to believe it.