Plenty of Love to Go Round!

In her always-glowing colours and sensitive text, Chichester Clark has introduced us to her own dog Plum in a previous book, Plumdog, and in this sequel, we meet Plum again, this time with a problem.  The problem is next door’s new cat, Binky.  ‘I’m not keen on cats,’ he says.  His real problem is jealousy because everyone thinks Binky is very special indeed, and up until now, Plum has been the only special one in the neighbourhood.  Binky absolutely adores Plum, though, and follows him about everywhere, even to the park, where Plum meets his dog friends.  What to do?  Even when Binky saves him from being locked in a shed overnight he still resents his presence and believes him to be ‘a show off, clever-clogs cat’.  When he takes his revenge, he learns that Emma and Rupert, his ‘mummy and daddy’, take a dim view of what he has done.  Emma explains to the penitent Plum that ‘There’s room in our hearts for him and for you!’  Of course dogs do express jealousy when a new animal appears in a family, but so do children, and this could certainly be interpreted as happening to a family with a new baby.  An older child also needs to learn that parents have ‘room in their hearts’ for both children.  This picture book is a lovely way to make that point, and Chichester Clark’s illustrations are outstanding as always.