Undead Pets 6 – Flight of the Pummeled Parakeet

Sam Hay's Flight of the Pummeled Parakeet is a funny ghost story for 6 year olds about a zombie parakeet with a LOT to say and one urgent job for Joe.

What happens

Joe Edmunds can see dead pets. It's all down to a magic Egyptian amulet from his great-uncle Charlie. Any undead animal with unfinished business comes looking for him.

This time it's Petey. He's bright green, with a big scar and one bulging red eye, and he turns up in the middle of a smoothie competition at school. Nobody else can see him. Everybody can see the mess (a whole jug of kiwi smoothie across the floor, and guess who gets the blame).

Petey belonged to Maggie, one of the school's lunch ladies. She's won five hundred dollars in a raffle, but her sister Pauline opened the letter first and wants to claim it for herself. So Joe has two days to get the prize to the right sister, without anyone finding out that a dead bird told him.

Petey is the star. He copies everything Joe says. He bursts into nursery rhymes when he's upset (and plucks out his own feathers). He pecks people he doesn't like, including Joe's big sister!

It's a very silly, very fast read. Joe's plans keep going wrong in the most embarrassing ways. He lands bottom first in a mop bucket and spends the afternoon in lost-property sweatpants that smell of wee. If your reader loves being in on a secret nobody else knows, they'll be laughing all the way through.

Worth mentioning that every animal in this series has died, which is how they end up visiting Joe. Petey flew into a window. It's all handled lightly and quickly, but a child who's recently lost a pet might feel it.

This is the sixth Undead Pets book, and this edition is American in its wording, so it's Mom, sixth grade and dollars. Joe explains the amulet early on, so it works fine on its own.

What to read next

If they like the idea of Joe and his ghostly visitors, start at the very beginning with Return of the Hungry Hamster, where Uncle Charlie first hands over the amulet.