I love the way Rumer Godden does asides to the reader. She does this when discussing a character's actions or thoughts. Godden also does this when introducing vocabulary. Her books that are geared toward children are also for adults.

I feel so cheesy giving all these children's books 5 stars, but I can't help it, they're all so good! Considering I read them all years and years ago, they must be that good if I still love them so much after all this time.

Little Plum is the sequel to Miss Happiness and Miss Flower, and just as faboo (maybe just a teeny bit less faboo), but highly enjoyable if, once again, you like dolls, dollhouses (especially Japanese ones), and the little girls who own them.

NOT FOR PEOPLE WHO GET CREEPED OUT BY TALKING DOLLS

When a new family moves into the house next door, Belinda finds it strange that the little girl is not allowed to play or go to school. Seeing all the girl has: a pony, fancy furniture, elegant clothes, and enough toys for several children, she becomes jealous and creates trouble.

There are some problematic issues with it in the form of the dolls, but I think the author tried to be respectful. One thing about yellow paint toward the end was in poor taste.

(Firstly many thanks to Jae for lending me this!) Godden possibly foolishly decides to jettison the quiet and thoughtful study of acclimatisation and culture from the first book, but it’s churlish to complain too much when she decides to replace it with a very, very funny farce. Deciding that uppity Belinda was the breakout star of the first book - and Nona essentially acts as her straight man - she decides to turn the book into something approximating a war of attrition that’s deeply absurd but also frequently genuinely hilarious. Godden has obviously been squirrelling away some dialogue from her own kids here, because a lot of Belinda’s dialogue and messages are brilliantly observed. It’s a bit weird to take a thoughtful book and follow it up with an ever growing series of bitter battles between two eight year olds, but there’s a nice party at the end which might suggest Godden hadn’t got much else to say about Japanese culture but a lot to say about eight year olds being glorious little shits

Such an adorable book! This one is different from the first in the series, but just as cute. This story focuses on the girls in the story rather than the dolls, and it was a lovely change to see Belinda's character development compared to the first book. I LOVED it :)

I remember how much I loved this story and I must've read it often. It's been at least 50 years since the first time, and I could still recall what was coming up next. Many of our family's retorts originated here: calling someone a 'rotter', 'intresinger and intresinger', an understanding of 'double-barreled' names. And this was, I think, where I first comprehended the meaning of RSVP, 'please answer'.

Again, Becky must've selected this book because of the strong female characters. Belinda, who, like me, is hardheaded and a tree climber and roller skater. This may also have come along the same year that my dad built my dollhouse that was bigger than me. Which I still have, it's in the basement. As are the well loved (and worn) Sound of Music Madame Alexander dolls that lived in it. Although I guess the USAF was paying rent for our off-post house in San Antonio, I don't know how they afforded it.

When I was nine we moved into a new house. On the floor of the downstairs playroom was a great deal of dust, some cockroaches (it was SC. there's always cockroaches.) and a purple paperback copy of this book, left behind by persons unknown. I was sorrowful upon leaving my former home (a horrifyingly vast mile and a half and one school boundary away) and found my nre home and new friends difficult... just like these children. I read Little Plum a million times those years, until the pages fell away... it was an excellent read, captivating, especially to an imaginative little girl, who awkwardly made her own doll clothes as well. Hope to be able to refind it as an adult....

Belinda and Nona vow to have nothing to do with Gem, the new girl next door - she's so stuck up! But the beautiful Japanese doll in Gem's window soon attracts the girls' attention.

Nona loves her own Japanese dolls, Miss Happiness and Miss Flower, and she and Belinda name Gem's doll Little Plum becuase her clothes are decorated with plum blossom.

But Little Plum seems so sad, unloved and uncared for. Will the three girls - and the three dolls - ever become friends?

First published in 1963, Little Plum is a charming story which revisits the characters from Rumer Godden's classic tale Miss Happiness and Miss Flower

This is a cute little book!

ok

If you love stories about dolls this would be just your cup of (Japanese) tea.

Lovely to read a book I remember from my childhood. Miss Happiness and Miss Flower and this book started my love for all things Japanese.