Lost! And all for a Pipkin of Pepper (A Pipkin of Pepper - Helen Cooper)

Member Name: happyhen

Product:	A Pipkin of Pepper - Helen Cooper
Date:	17/02/09 (79 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A crackling story, brought to life by jewel-coloured and richly detailed illustrations

Disadvantages: You'll probably have to get the final book in the trilogy too!

We all know that reading aloud to our children is one of the best things we can do for them. But in truth, it's not always a complete pleasure. Small children get 'addicted' to a particular story (something in your head quietly screaming "Not that one again, please darling!!!"): and some picture books aimed at the 2-5 age group are mind-numbingly boring, others are simply tongue-twisting torture.

Thankfully, Helen Cooper's characterful saga of three unlikely friends - the cat, the squirrel and the duck - doesn't fall into either category. I always heave a sigh of relief when my daughter chooses 'A Pipkin of Pepper...'

The story continues where 'Pumpkin Soup' left off. To recap: cat, squirrel and duck share a quirky 'old white cabin' in the middle of a wood, where they grow nothing but pumpkins and live on nothing but pumpkin soup. But there's a problem. They've run out of salt...

"There wasn't a grain, not a speckle of salt, to put into the Pumpkin Soup!
Would it still taste as good?
NO!"

So the friends decide to leave their rural idyll and travel to the big City to buy more salt. The cat and the squirrel are old hands at this, but the duck has never been and wants to come with them. The only problem is, he has a habit of wandering off; and his older, wiser friends are worried that he might get lost.

After much whining and cajoling he persuades them. Sure enough, once there, the duck is distracted by the bright lights and fabulous sights in the City - and a wild idea that they don't just need salt, they need pepper!! And he does indeed get lost. Drama and crisis ensue, but finally he is rescued by a kindly hen, the dog who keeps the pepper shop, and some highly efficient policedogs with a helicopter.

Back home in the old white cabin, they return to the task of making pumpkin soup. What will it taste like with a pipkin of pepper...? I'll leave you to discover the final, delicious twist in the story.

Helen Cooper's illustrations are, if anything, even more luscious and intense than those in 'Pumpkin Soup'. In our family, we all love the City, with its flashing advertising hoardings and buildings subtly shaped like ornate peppermills - a jewel-coloured mix of the Kremlin, New York and Las Vegas. We also love the little sub-plot: a tiny pair of beetles, appearing like a Greek chorus every few pages, commenting on the action ("Do you think the duck will wander off?" "I hope not").

The words propel the story along at a furious pace, again helped by the use of different-sized type. And I love the fact that Helen Cooper relishes interesting vocabulary, often weaving it directly into her illustrations. For instance, when the Duck is trying to persuade the others to let him go with them to the city:

"Can I go" pleaded Duck. "Can I go?" he said,
and he wiggled,
and wheedled,
and bobbed,
and begged,
until the Cat said, "All right! If you promise to hold on tight."

In my experience, at this age children just accept every word you use... so their own vocabulary is enriched. 'A pipkin' has already become part of our everyday family language.

My child readily took on board the 'what to do if you get lost' moral of the story, which is also helpful. Although this is as far from a public information film as you could get.

A deserving winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal for children's book illustration, Helen Cooper has once again created a surreal and yet highly believable world, populated with rounded and very 'human' animal characters, which the adults will enjoy just as much as the children. And letting your own genuine enjoyment show is really the best way of encouraging children to love books, isn't it?

Summary: Great tale with an underlying message