Toad Attack! Read online

  First published in 2019 in Great Britain by

  Barrington Stoke Ltd

  18 Walker Street, Edinburgh, EH3 7LP

  This ebook edition first published in 2020

  www.barringtonstoke.co.uk

  Text © 2019 Patrice Lawrence

  Illustrations © 2019 Becka Moor

  The moral right of Patrice Lawrence and Becka Moor to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in any part in any form without the written permission of the publisher

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library upon request

  ISBN: 978-1-80090-012-7

  To Aliya, for the inspiration!

  CONTENTS

  1. A Toad on the Head

  2. A Toad Called Twerky

  3. Toads of Terror

  4. Monster Toads

  5. Toads on the Roads

  6. Toad Attack

  Chapter 1

  A Toad on the Head

  On Wednesday morning, Leo Hogg stepped out of his house and was hit on the head by a toad. It bounced off, slid down his nose and landed on his left shoe. Leo’s small brown eyes stared into the toad’s big red ones. Leo blinked. So did the toad. Then the toad flicked out its tongue, pushed down on Leo’s foot and flew up onto the low branch of a nearby tree. It hopped higher and higher until it was balancing on a thick twig at the top. A breeze ruffled the leaves. The toad wobbled, then fell, but instead of landing in a splat at Leo’s feet, it caught a gust of wind and flew up and over Leo’s roof until it was gone.

  “Leo?” Granddad was by the front door. “Have you forgotten something?”

  “No, Granddad, it’s just …” Leo looked up at his roof. A pigeon was sitting on the satellite dish and looking down at the road as if it owned it. There were no toads anywhere. Had Leo dreamed the flying toad? “It’s nothing, Granddad,” he said.

  “Hurry up, then! Oh, and can you come by the workshop on your way home? I need you to help me fix Lisa Tank’s golf brolly. That umbrella needs a lot of work.”

  “Can’t Mum help?” Leo asked.

  “She’s busy working on a new type of tornado umbrella. Even the strongest winds won’t turn it inside out.”

  “We don’t have many tornadoes in Upper Dab, Granddad.”

  Granddad smiled. “True. But they do in other places. Your mum reckons that these will be her best brollies ever.”

  Leo smiled back at Granddad. “Like the umbrellas that could turn into cat beds?”

  “Don’t be cheeky, Leo. I think your mum’s on to something this time. One day, we’ll have a real umbrella shop again.”

  A noisy crowd of Upper Dab High School students were waiting for the bus opposite Leo’s house. It was funny to think that Leo would be heading to secondary school next year. Would he ever be as tall as them? They were too busy chatting to see what was on the litter bin next to them. It was another toad, pale yellow like the last. It leaped up, legs springing out like party poppers behind it. It landed on top of the bus-stop sign. Leo’s heart was thumping hard. He hadn’t imagined it. Toads could fly. He’d never seen that before.

  His phone buzzed in his pocket. Leo took it out and checked it. It was a text from his best friend, Rosa:

  Get here quick, Leo!

  He texted back:

  I’m walking as quick as I can!

  She replied straight away:

  Run, Leo! Run!

  Why?

  You’ll see!

  He shoved his phone deep into his pocket and crossed the road to Dab Deals industrial estate. He tightened the straps of his rucksack, took a deep breath and RAN! He sprinted through the empty car park, jumped over the small fence by Bug In A Rug carpet shop and tore through Clackers housing estate. He staggered out onto Dab Drive and through the school gates.

  Rosa had already arrived at Dab Juniors and was sitting on the wall by the nature garden. The gate was open and Leo could see Mr Pringle, the head teacher, watering the flowerbeds and pots.

  “What took you so long?” Rosa said.

  Leo took off his rucksack and flopped down next to her. “Something really odd happened.”

  Rosa held up her phone to show him. “Something odd like this?”

  Chapter 2

  A Toad Called Twerky

  Leo squinted at the picture on Rosa’s phone screen. She was in her garden with her hand held out. A big toad sat in the middle of her palm.

  She grinned at Leo. “It’s not just any toad. It’s a flying toad! Dad Raj is so excited!”

  Dad Raj would be excited. He was the main presenter on the Warts and All TV nature programme.

  “I saw one too,” Leo said. “I thought I was imagining it at first.”

  “Me too!” Rosa said. “I saw it from the kitchen. It looked like it jumped off our fig tree and, well, just started to fly.” Rosa’s eyes shone with excitement. “Dad Raj caught it while it was munching on a slug. I’ve called it Twerky.”

  Leo raised his eyebrows. “Twerky?”

  “Yes!” Rosa signed the letters – T W E R K Y – slowly, to annoy him. She knew Leo had spent all summer practising British Sign Language. She’d been the one teaching him. Rosa could hear a little with her hearing aids. She was also very good at lip-reading, but British Sign Language was great for making secret plans.

  “I understood you the first time,” he said. “It’s just that Twerky’s a funny name for a toad.”

  “It’s a funny type of toad,” Rosa said. “And when it’s breathing, its bottom sort of moves, as if it’s twerking – so, Twerky!”

  Leo laughed. “Are you keeping Twerky as a pet?”

  Rosa shook her head. “Dad Raj wants to examine it and let it go. It’s not every day that a flying toad lands in your garden.”

  “Does he know where they came from?” Leo asked.

  “No, but he’s trying to find out. He’s making a special Warts and All programme about them.”

  As they sat chatting, the nature-garden gate opened wider. Plum Pringle, the head’s daughter, came out. She had a small wicker cat basket in her arms.

  “Plum!” Mr Pringle ran out after her. “Bring her back! We still need her! There’s a fat slug on the bean plant.”

  Plum spotted Leo and Rosa. She held the cat basket closer to her and ran back into the nature garden. The gate closed.

  Rosa nudged Leo. “Wow! Mr Pringle’s even trained his cat to help with the garden.”

  “I’m not surprised,” Leo said. “If we don’t win Dab’s Best Blooms this year, he’s going to explode.”

  “Yeah!” Rosa laughed. “Did you see his face when Nae Nae Juniors beat us last year? He looked like he was going to explode then.”

  They put their phones away and headed into school.

  Chapter 3

  Toads of Terror

  After lunch, Leo’s teacher, Miss Quaver, led the class out into the nature garden. Mr Pringle and the gardening club were making a great job of it. Maybe this year they had a real chance of winning Dab’s Best Blooms. Pots of tomatoes and blackcurrants stood against a wall that had been painted a pale sky blue with clouds. The reception class had made pom-pom birds that dangled from a tiny apple tree. Bean plants trailed up canes. Bees hummed around a bush of pink roses and clumps of spikey lavender. Leo breathed in the flowery perfume.

  “OK,” Miss Quaver said. “As you know, the judges are visiting us on Saturday. Mr Pringle has asked for your help. We’re not allowed to use any slug pellets or other poison, so pests have to be removed by hand.”

  Miss Quaver split them into groups. She gave eac
h group a bucket and gardening gloves and told them to collect any snails or slugs they found in the garden. They were allowed to squash greenfly and squirt special soapy water over blackfly. One group had to check leaves for butterfly eggs.

  “Hungry caterpillars will munch through this whole garden in no time,” Miss Quaver said.

  Rosa picked a snail out of a tomato plant and dropped it into her bucket. “This is my kind of lesson!” she said.

  Suddenly a voice boomed, “Excuse me, Miss Quaver! I’m afraid there’s been a change of plan!”

  Mr Pringle came into the garden followed by a woman with a camera on her shoulder and a sound man with a big fluffy microphone.

  Leo tapped Rosa on the shoulder. “Look! We’re going to be famous!”

  Mr Pringle went over to talk to Miss Quaver. She nodded but didn’t look happy.

  “Sorry, class,” she said. “Mr Pringle needs the garden for an interview.”

  Everybody groaned, took off their gloves and handed back the buckets. Just as Leo passed Mr Pringle, he saw the camera woman take a big rubber toad out of her rucksack.

  She said, “We don’t have any real toads to show our viewers. We will have to use this.”

  She put the toad on Mr Pringle’s shoulder. He looked very unhappy indeed.

  She said, “Thank you for letting us into your wonderful garden, Mr Pringle. There are only two more days until the winner of Dab’s Best Blooms is chosen. Do you think you’ll win this year?”

  Mr Pringle puffed himself up. “Of course we’ll win! Our garden is the best it’s ever been.”

  The camera woman nodded. “I’ve heard that some very unusual toads have been spotted in Upper Dab, Mr Pringle. These are very hungry toads that seem to be able to fly. Will your garden be safe?”

  Then Miss Quaver called Leo over, so he didn’t have a chance to hear how Mr Pringle replied.

  *

  After school, Leo walked back with Rosa.

  She said, “Dad Raj texted me to say he’s going to be late tonight as he’s doing loads of interviews about the toads. They’re turning up all over town.”

  “Flying toads in Upper Dab! He must be delighted,” Leo said.

  “He’s worried,” Rosa said. “Toads shouldn’t just drop out of the sky.” She took out her phone and clicked on a film. “He sent me this.”

  A squashy-faced cat was lying across the bonnet of a car. Three toads dropped down from a nearby tree and landed next to it. The cat stood up, arched its back and slapped the smallest toad off the car. The two bigger toads hopped closer to the cat. Their tongues shot out and slapped the cat’s ear. The cat jumped to its feet, fur on end, and shot off the car. It then ran down the street as the toads bounced and glided behind it.

  “Poor Nigel,” Rosa said.

  “Who’s Nigel?” asked Leo.

  “The cat’s called Nigel,” said Rosa. She clicked another link. A woman had posted a selfie with the cat. A caption underneath shouted “TOADS OF TERROR!”

  “She’s Mary Grimbow. Nigel’s her cat. He was terrified,” Rosa explained.

  “He must have seen himself in a mirror,” Leo said. “He’s a funny-looking cat.”

  Rosa’s face stayed serious. “Nigel can’t help how he looks.” She popped her phone back into her bag. “Toads should be scared of cats, Leo. Something really weird is happening.”

  *

  Leo left Rosa at the end of Dab Drive and carried on to the Dolly’s Brollies workshop. It wasn’t really a workshop any more. It was more of a work corner, stuck at the back of a shoe shop. When Leo was little, his grandma, Dolly, had owned the shop. Then the shop sold umbrellas and his grandma ran the shop at the front, while Granddad fixed old umbrellas and designed new ones in the workshop at the back. Leo loved that shop. He loved looking at the racks of umbrellas, counting the different colours and choosing his favourite, hoping each week that they wouldn’t be sold. As he got older, his favourites stayed in the shop longer and longer until nobody seemed to buy any umbrellas at all. When Grandma died, the shop closed. Maria, the new owner, turned it into a shoe shop. Mum and Granddad helped out with shoe repairs round the back, as well as keeping a corner for their brollies, but they still dreamed about having a real umbrella shop again.

  The little bell above the shop door rang as Leo went in. Maria was behind the counter, staring at her phone. She looked up.

  “Is this your school on the news, Leo?”

  He nodded.

  “And there’s really a swarm of flying toads?”

  “I think so.”

  “Is that why Mr Pringle’s got a toad on his shoulder?”

  Leo nodded again.

  “He doesn’t look very happy about it.” Maria picked up a shoe and stroked the leather. “Toad skin. I wonder how tough it is.” She saw the look on Leo’s face and put the shoe back down. “Just joking.”

  Leo went through the door behind the counter, past the high shelves stacked with boxes of shoes and boots. Normally, everything was quiet back here. Granddad would be sewing on a shoe buckle and Mum fixing a hole in a shoe sole. No one would be talking. Today, Leo could hear them before he saw them.

  “What about this, Angela?” Granddad sounded excited.

  “Yes!” Mum said. “It comes in so many colours. We can match them to Maria’s shoes and put them in the shop window.”

  Granddad clapped. “Great idea!”

  Leo peered round the shelves. “Mum? Granddad?”

  They were side by side looking at the pictures in a big book. Leo could see little scraps of fabric pinned to the pages.

  Mum looked up. “Toads, Leo!”

  “And they’re flying!” Granddad waved his arms around. “Flying! Do you know what that means?”

  “They can fly?” said Leo.

  Mum and Granddad rolled their eyes at the same time.

  Mum said, “When toads go up, what comes down?”

  “Toads?”

  “Precisely!” Mum agreed. “People have been filming them and putting it online. The toads don’t exactly fly. They sort of glide and drop. One just missed Sally Sparkle when she was out for her lunch-time jog.” Mum held up the skeleton of a big umbrella. “Our tornado umbrellas are perfect. They stop toads plopping down on people’s heads.”

  “What if the toads are only plopping down in Upper Dab?” Leo said.

  Another double eye roll.

  “The toads can glide for miles.” Granddad said it slowly, trying to make Leo understand. “They must have come from somewhere. So why can’t they glide somewhere else? To another town, across the sea, maybe around the world.” He tapped a half-made umbrella on the floor. “And Dolly’s Brollies will be ready with our Toad-Busters. Before you know it, we’ll have a proper shop again.”

  “Maybe two shops,” Mum said.

  Granddad frowned. “Just two, Angela? Two hundred! We’ll have shops around the world!”

  Leo backed away. “I’ll leave you to it.”

  Chapter 4

  Monster Toads

  Next morning, a text arrived from Rosa as Leo was eating his cornflakes.

  Dad Raj is on Frosty Morning!

  Leo switched on the television. “Granddad! It’s Rosa’s Dad Raj!”

  Dad Raj was sitting on the sofa opposite the presenter, Esi Frost. A cross-looking woman with a funny-looking cat on her lap sat next to him.

  “It’s Nigel!” Leo yelled.

  Granddad squinted at the screen. “No, I think that’s Mary Grimbow. She runs the flower shop near the station.”

  “No! Her cat’s called Nigel!” Leo explained. “The toads chased him down the road.”

  “Ah, yes.” Granddad took a slurp of his tea. “They all ganged up on him, didn’t they?”

  Dad Raj was leaning towards Esi Frost. She was nodding like she agreed with every word he was saying. Leo turned up the volume.

  “We still aren’t sure where these toads came from,” Dad Raj was saying. “But we think they’re related to cane to
ads.”

  “Cane toads!” Mary Grimbow lurched forwards. Nigel yowled in protest. “They eat everything in their path! They’re monsters! And these ones fly.”

  Dad Raj gave her a friendly smile. “We just think they’re related. We don’t know for sure. But what we do know is that there are far fewer toads in the world than there should be. Every time we use slug pellets in our gardens, we kill more toads. Every time we destroy ponds and marshes to build roads and houses, we kill more toads. We should be happy that this new breed has chosen Upper Dab as its home.”

  Esi Frost looked into the camera. “Should we be happy? Call us now and let us know what you think.” She reached under her desk and brought out a fish tank. The camera zoomed in on the toad inside. Leo guessed that it was Twerky. “Friend or foe?” asked Esi Frost.

  A scream cut the air. The camera swung towards Mary Grimbow, who was rubbing a scratch mark on her hand. Nigel streaked away from the sofa and out of sight.

  “Take that thing away!” Mary Grimbow shouted at Esi Frost. “It’s scaring my Nigel!” She jumped off the sofa and followed the cat. “Nigel! It’s OK, sweetie. You’re safe.”

  The TV channel cut to the adverts.

  *

  Rosa was waiting on the wall by the nature garden. Leo sat down next to her.

  “I counted twelve toads on my way in,” he said.

  Rosa said, “I counted eleven.”

  “Does Dad Raj really think they’re a good thing?”

  She shrugged. “Some toad experts came over to our house last night to examine Twerky. They took loads of pictures and a tiny bit of his blood to test. If he is a cane toad, there’s going to be all sorts of problems. Cane toads really do eat everything in their path, including other toads’ eggs. These ones can get up into trees and birds’ nests. Nothing will be safe.”

  Leo thought of Mum and Granddad, planning their toad-proof umbrellas.

  He said, “Maybe they could be good for Upper Dab.”