Cockadoodle-Doo, Mr Sultana!. Michael Morpurgo

      It was a button, a shining, glittering diamond button. Just a little way off down the farmyard track, was a farmhouse where there lived a poor old woman. She had little enough in this world – though she never complained of it – only a couple of nanny goats for her milk, a few hens for her eggs, and a little red rooster. She always kept the goats hidden away inside her house, and the hens too, for fear that the Sultan’s servants might come by and steal them away for the Sultan.

      She had always tried to keep her little red rooster in the house too, because she loved him dearly, and because she wanted him to keep her hens happy. But this was a little red rooster with a mind of his own, and whenever he could, he would go running off to explore the big, wide world outside, to find friends – and to find food, for he was always very hungry.

      hat same day, when the poor old woman went out to fetch the water for her goats and hens, the little red rooster scooted out from under her skirts. Before she could stop him he was out through the open door and running off down the farm track.