Amber Stewart 
Puddle’s Big Step 

‘When Puddle was barely more than an egg, he couldn’t wait to start duckling school.’ So begins this story about feelings of excitement, anticipation, and understandable nervousness that surround an approaching first day at nursery school. Puddle, a little duckling, is like so many pre-school children in desperately wanting to be grown-up enough to go to school and to have his own school bag. But as the day draws nearer, Puddle begins to feel rather wobbly about the whole concept! Luckily Mummy knows just what to do. She packs items into Puddle’s school bag that will help him through his first day – one of her softest feathers to remind him she is never far away, some home-made biscuits for him to share with his new friends, his Cuddly for the afternoon nap – and, as the story unfolds, we discover how Puddle’s enjoyment of his first day builds each time he finds one of Mummy’s tokens in his bag. Puddle spends a happy day counting caterpillars, matching ladybirds, leaping from lily pad to lily pad.