Alfred is afraid of lots of things using the telephone, falling, dancing, saying the wrong thing, thick duvets and fireworks among others. But most of all he is afraid of standing up in front of the class and talking. Luckily, he has a long fringe that he hides behind, but this doesn’t really seem to help much. When his teacher tells the class one day that she is giving each of them a piece of paper with the name of an animal on it and that they are to find interesting things about that animal to tell the class the following Friday, he is terrified and feels sick. At first he can’t even bring himself to look at the paper, and, later, at home, he sits on his bed and thinks he will just sit there ‘forever’. Of course he realises that this won’t work, so hauling the paper out of his bag, he discovers he is to find out about the Blue Whale. How he goes about doing this and his realising that the subject is really interesting makes up the rest of this short book for newly-confident readers. He is still terribly nervous when he must face the class, but after a shaky start, he begins to enjoy sharing his new knowledge, even treating the class to his version of how Blue Whales sing. This is a charming story with lots of equally charming pictures, and Alfred learns that he can be brave, just like the Blue Whale.