posted on 13 Feb 2025

Brenda’s Revenge by Sarah Tagholm, illustrated by Laurie Stansfield

One of the advantages of being an older child is that, for a while at least, you can treat a younger sibling as a convenient and often compliant plaything. I can remember propping up my baby sister with cushions so that she could be an audience for my not very good ballet dancing. Only-children sometimes resort to playing with a pet in a similar way, until they usually wriggle away in protest.

When I shared this delightful picture book with a group of four year olds they wondered if the girl on the front cover was called Brenda and where she was going with her magic-wand leading the way. One boy asked why her cat looked so fed-up and why she hadn’t noticed. We talked about the book title and the meaning of ‘revenge’ but at this point did not realise that Brenda was the cat.

As the story unfolds we learnt that she is a remarkably co-operative cat as her owner gives her a new hairdo, dresses her up, tells her off for not concentrating on her school work and much more. One of the children owned up to playing similar games with her cat, but insisted that she definitely enjoyed it. We spent a bit of time reflecting on how true this was as cats and humans were different after all and that the cat might prefer being treated as an animal. Another boy pointed out that we could tell by the illustrations showing her cross facial expression that Brenda was not having a good time at all.

When they are trampolining together, the girl notices that new neighbours have moved in next door. She explains to Brenda that she is going to spend time with the new girl next door but this turns out to be a fraught experience. She dominates every game forcing her to wear itchy dressing up clothes, taste a horrible magic flying potion and completely soaks her when they are playing at firefighters. We noticed that she laughed all the time even though the girl was not enjoying the games - a proper bossy boots! When she confides to Brenda that she had ‘ the most dreadful time’, the clever cat realises that she needs to act quickly if this new friendship is going to continue. We laughed out loud when we realised her cunning plan for a more peaceful future.

I strongly recommend this thought-provoking story, jam-packed with colourful and detailed illustrations. Published by Rocket Bird Books and guided for children aged 2+, this special picture book can be obtained from your local independent bookshop, who will order it if they don’t have a copy on the shelf.

 

Karen Argent

February 2025