Real Pigeons Fight Crime; Andrew McDonald, illustrated by Ben Wood

Oh, what a joyous read this is in the first of a new series all about pigeons - the bird everyone loves to hate.

When a town is overrun with mischief and wrong-doings there is only one group needed to save the day. Who you need is a crime-fighting bunch of pigeons with a unique set of skills, meet super-strong Frillback, stretchy Tumbler, navigational whizz Homey and their leader Grandpouter. Far away on a farm lives another pigeon with a rather unique talent. Rock pigeon is a master of disguise - he loves dressing up as plants and animals - and it is this special talent that sees Grandpouter fly from the city to the farm to recruit Rock to join his crack squad of crime-fighting pigeons. After being introduced to the rest of the gang, it is on with solving the first case. What has happened to all of the breadcrumbs in the park? Cue secret meetings in a rubbish bin, stake-outs, disguises, a haunted park, a MONSTER CROW and plenty of feathers flapping! The crack team of crime-fighters are going to need all the pigeon-power they can muster if they are going to capture the crumbs and make it through their first case with all their feathers intact…

Pigeons take centre-stage in this laugh-out-read that sees a group of feathered friends involved in madcap adventures as they try to save the city from a crafty cat and some birds behaving badly. The pigeons are awesome - they are brave, they work as a team, they have bonkers arguments and come up with all sorts of crazy plans that will have readers howling. As the first madcap adventure comes to a close another one quickly follows. The book features three individual cases that are all loosely interlinked and each with their own mystery that needs solving. Along the way there are all manner of weird and wonderful surprises. Get ready to meet a very large and menacing crow, a bat-trapper, a flying scarecrow and a budgie that can read fortunes. The pigeons cause plenty of drama and by the end of the book it is quite clear that they have made two nemeses in Jungle Crow and Megabat and the battle for supremacy will no doubt resume in the next book.

Each story is told over four chapters and readers will be racing through the pages as quickly a pigeon gobbles up a breadcrumb. The pages are heavily illustrated with all kinds of hilarious and wacky illustrations that just amp up the fun. Sure to be a hit with many children and is perfect for readers who are new to chapter books. After reading this you will never look at pigeons the same way again.

Recommended for 6+.