When Duckling agrees to help her devious grandfather one last time, she ends up entangled in a plot which will decide the fate of her city, a place called Berren.
Lian Tanner returns to the wondrously imaginative world she created in The Keepers series with her new book The Rogues: Accidental Heroes. In Accidental Heroes, the first of this exciting new series, we meet Duckling and Pummel, two young-guns who couldn’t be more opposite. Pummel, a farm boy, is looking for work in the city to help out his family who are struggling to get by back home. Duckling and her grandfather, Lord Rump, however, are quite the opposite, constantly pulling off frauds across the city and generally getting up to mischief.
Pummel, a naive and sweet soul, quickly becomes an unknowing pawn in Duckling and Lord Rump’s schemes. This will be the last time, they keep promising her.
Ducking and Pummel become unlikely allies in their discovery of some powerful magic within themselves. But in Berren, magic is a grave crime. They find themselves at the centre of the city, the Stronghold, where they must stop the assassination of the heir to the throne. Somehow though they need to keep their magical powers a secret or suffer the consequences.
The people of Berren have deemed magic illegal, calling it witchery and treachery. When Pummel and Duckling join forces, they have a lot to learn. Pummel’s trusting nature leads him down many wrong paths, and Duckling soon realises she knows less about her grandfather than she thought.
Through the development of their peculiar but charming friendship the true nature of each of their characters is revealed. To save the young heir, they must unleash every inch of courage and use the magic which they possess despite the danger it puts them in.
Kids aged 9+ will love this book for it’s fantastical setting and adventurous themes. Tanner’s vibrant words jump off the page and create a world in which Pummel and Duckling are challenged to question all they know, and risk all they have, for the good of the world.
About the Author:
Lian Tanner is a children’s author and playwright. She has worked as a teacher in Australia and Papua New Guinea, a tourist bus driver, a freelance journalist, a juggler, a community arts worker, an editor and a professional actor. It took her a while to realise that all of these jobs were really just preparation for being a writer. Nowadays she lives by the beach in southern Tasmania, with a small tabby cat and lots of friendly neighbourhood dogs. She has not yet mastered the art of Concealment by the Imitation of Nothingness, but she is quite good at Camouflage.
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