The Last Chip

This book supports The Trussel Trust, a foodbank charity.

It champions diversity, and shows how strangers can be life-saving. Percy Pigeon is small and alone, and hungry.  Whenever he finds a food opportunity he is bullied and denied any share of food. He tries many hopeful sites; the railway station with its rushing commuters, the city rooftops, (St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol?) and he even flies to the park, where he knows people throw food into the pond to feed the birds. (Oh, what gloriously happy and fat ducks they are!) Again, Percy is driven from the pond, the ducks thrashing him with wings and abuse. Flying to the seaside, at last he spots a discarded piece of fish. But his excitement is soon crushed by a huge, peg-leg of a giant seagull, complete with skull and crossbones pirate’s hat….. spot the I love MUM tattoo! ‘THERE BE NO PICKINGS FOR LAND-LUBBIN’ VERMIN LIKE THEE,’ roars the seagull. He grabs poor Percy and slam-dunks him into a rubbish bin. Weak with hunger, Percy eventually makes it home, plummeting from the skies to the street below, landing next to a street-dweller. She recognises his acute hunger, and offers Percy her last chip of the title. The author/illustrator has used the illustrations to add much to this story, using flat tones and muted colours. Visual jokes abound; spot the water-skier coming a cropper, the fisherman knitting his net, Mr Drippy the ice-cream man and van. This is a book to make the reader think. Percy never gave up. He found someone who could save him. Someone who needed saving herself.