HOW TO BE BRAVE

A rare and valuable duck, a kidnapping, mysterious notes to decipher, and plenty of baked goods propel the action from an English boarding school to the Amazon.

Orphaned Elizabeth attends the School of the Good Sisters, where she has many good friends—and one notable foe. Elizabeth finds a duck with a broken wing, which she mends before she frees it. Fast-forward to find Elizabeth raising her daughter, Calla, with little money but lots of love. An opportunity arises for Elizabeth to travel to the Amazon to study Mallardus Amazonica, the same species of duck as the one she rescued years earlier. Calla is packed off to the Good Sisters, where one teacher is a former friend of her mother’s. The pace quickens when Elizabeth is kidnapped in a nefarious plot and Calla’s classmates and the Good Sisters band together in a rush of mayhem and mischief to rescue her. Sweet treats, classic books like Ballet Shoes, and the intrigue of secret tunnels add to the atmosphere. The narrator, one of the nuns at the school, puts herself squarely in the action and fills the pages with footnotes, humorous, whimsical asides that are integral to the story. Fans of Eva Ibbotson, British baking shows, and boarding school stories will happily immerse themselves in this cozily familiar setting. Main characters present as White.

An entertaining and humorous adventure.