Reviewed by Gail McDonald
This is an interesting story about Plum who is a panda trying to find something that she is good at, just like her brothers.
She tried tree climbing and, oh no, she fell out of the tree. She tried painting but ended up getting paint all over herself. And then one morning she heard a sound and followed it to find out what it was.
She found Old Panda playing a piano and loved the sound. Old Panda offered to teach her to play but Plum was worried – what if ‘it is not for me’?
She promised she would play and try very hard until ‘the music made her heart flip over, just like pancakes on a hot pan’. At first, she thought it was the hardest thing she had ever tried but, with Old Panda’s support, she learnt to play as soft and light as a pancake.
As she is practising, it is hard to see Plum so the reader would need to get the child to find Plum behind the piano – just the bow in her hair can be seen.
Eventually Plum plays at a concert for all her family clearly enjoying the music and Plum declares ‘playing the piano makes me as happy as eating pancakes.
The illustrations, while they fit the story, do overwhelm the reader – so many pancakes that look a bit like gold coins.
Pancakes for Plum
[2024]
by Rae Tan
Lothian Children’s Books
ISBN: 978 073442 249 1
$24.99; 32pp