The Clever Trick

The Clever Trick
By Juliet Bell

This book is about a Kenyan family that visits the Lake Nakuru National Park with their pet parrot Sparkle. This lake is famous for the beautiful pink flamingoes and is one of the many tourist sights with in the Great Rift Valley. Unbeknown to them, domestic animals are not allowed in the park. They decided to leave Sparkle at the entrance of the park under the custody of a ranger. Sparkle feels humiliated because he is not used to being caged.

The gate keeper go about his duties answering radio calls. Close by are two men who are listening to the conversation. They decide to steal Sparkle and sell him. While they are running away with the parrot, the cage opens and Sparkle escapes. Sparkle mobilizes other birds and encourages them to load their beaks with green algae found around the lake. They fly back to the gate and squawk the algae on the two men who had stolen Sparkle. This surprises the men as they are napping under the trees.

This is a fun story for children to read. It is part of the Sparkle Adventure Series of books. The moral of the story is not to take things that do not belong to you.