Six Dinner Sid has become a firm favourite in our household in recent months. Doing exactly what it says on the tin, Inga Moore’s tale tells of cunning cat who inveigles his way into the affections of six different households on Aristotle Street so that he can enjoy six different dinners each day. So keen on his grub is Sid, in fact, that he’s prepared to assume six different names and six different personalities to ensure that his rapacious hunger is sated.Much to poor Sid’s chagrin though, six different consultations with the same vet on the same day cause his delicate web of lies to come unravelled, and his six owners conspire to ensure that, going forward, he will have but one dinner a day (which is a bit harsh in my view; most cats need at least three square meals per day. Presumably Sid has a little excess weight to shift, though I don’t think that this is immediately apparent from either the text or the illustrations). With apposite feline disgust, Sid promptly abandons the blinkered hermits of Aristotle Street and is adopted by the friendly folk of Pythagoras Place who, because he’s frank with them about his gluttony from the start and / or they’re all pally with each other, are prepared to indulge his voracious appetite.
I’m certain that there’s a moral in here somewhere, though whether it’s ‘It’s fine to be a glutton, provided that you’re open about it’ or ‘Talk to your neighbours, lest you be deceived by a Machiavellian moggy’, I’m not sure. Fortunately such subtleties will be lost on most of this book’s intended audience, as they will be far too wrapped up in loveable Sid’s amusing antics to try and measure the author’s views on deceit, greed and apathy - my daughter certainly is.
