Leave It to Plum!

“An instant hit.”—Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
“A splendid hullabaloo at the zoo.”—Booklist
“A buoyant tale.”—School Library Journal
When a small mammal with an oversized ego tries to take over the zoo, just leave it to the big-hearted peacock Plum to save the day! From award-winning author Matt Phelan, the creator of Knights vs. Dinosaurs and its two sequels, Leave It to Plum! is a highly illustrated young middle grade novel perfect for reluctant readers and animal lovers everywhere.
Young Plum is one of the peacock ambassadors for the Athensville Zoo. Every day the peacocks are allowed to wander freely among the zoo’s visitors, delighting and guiding kids and grown-ups alike. The peacocks are very proud of their responsibility; none so much as kind, curious Plum.
But Itch the ningbing—a type of very small marsupial—doesn’t understand why those birdbrains should get so much freedom while he’s all cooped up. So he plots and plots, sure that he will escape and become the zoo ambassador!
With short chapters and energetic black-and-white illustrations, award-winning author Matt Phelan’s Leave It to Plum! is a highly illustrated young middle grade novel full of warmth and humor. The first hilarious story in a series about a young peacock with a big heart, a small mammal with a big ego, and the busy zoo they both live in is perfect for fans of the Princess in Black and Mercy Watson series.
From School Library Journal
Gr 3–7—In this alliterative zoo tale, peppy purple peacock Plum befriends Jeremy, a sad and solitary street kitty, who returns the favor by saving all the peafowl from a frightening fate. It seems that nefarious ningbing Itch, a mouselike marsupial aiming to get the feathered flock ejected, has concocted a scheme to frame the flightless fowl for a series of theft, and then dispatch them via an "accident" on the zoo's closed-off elevated monorail. Fortunately, Plum manages to send a signal that brings his feline ally racing to the rescue in the nick of time. And being grateful, as well as the most beneficent of birds, Plum goes on to hook Jeremy up with lonely new zookeeper Lizzie. Perhaps Phelan can be forgiven for portraying the tails of both peacocks and peahens with the same calligraphic swirls, as the expressive ink-and-wash animal portraits that pack his short chapters of well-paced narrative are done in a fanciful style. Progressing readers weaned on similarly sited anthropomorphic shenanigans like Diane Redfield Massie's Baby beebee bird or Philip Stead's Amos McGee tales will find their suspicions that it really is all happening at the zoo further confirmed. VERDICT A buoyant tale for younger middle grade readers, with a mild dose of danger for spice and an extroverted protagonist on a mission to "mingle, guide, delight."—John Edward Peters