Leave It To Plum!

Written and Illustrated by Matt Phelan

Informational Resources:

Author/Illustrator Information:

Author Website:  https://www.mattphelan.com/

Activities & Resources:

Activities:

Zoo:

Take a virtual field trip to a zoo (10:07):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ycq8j8JVkQ

Peacocks:

Interesting facts about peacocks (10:04):

https://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=ovxJXZdhRdM

Marsupials:

Interesting facts about marsupials:

https://www.ferris.edu/card-riley-center/Kids_Corner/marsupials.htm

12 Interesting Facts About Marsupials (4:27):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lg66n9QPCI

Monorail:

Monorail Facts for Kids:

https://kids.kiddle.co/Monorail

Top 10 Coolest Monorail Systems in the World (14:52):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHs-ngAHclI

Walt Disney Monorail (4:28):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo8OeesPoi4

MakerSpace Activities:

Peacocks:

Learn how to draw a peacock:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HO-Y3jVNsuhBkl1-HifdFN837eVIAjKW/view?usp=sharingMake a peacock mask (7:23):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKGaHHFB2SM

Origami Peacock:

Picture Instructions:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UC_u9De69xYrXKJcquOID7nLbmp7FXH0/view?usp=sharing

Video Instructions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4x4ulftvSU

Origami Artist Website:

https://jonakashima.com.br/2020/08/17/origami-peacock/

Marsupials:

Learn How to Draw a Wombat (6:41):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7mQm5doIwE

Learn How to Draw a Kangaroo (6:35):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZLFACI54aY

Monorails:

How to draw a monorail (2:45)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xo9sgrCEHGA

How to Build a Model Monorail:

https://ourpastimes.com/how-to-build-a-model-monorail-12150495.html

Discussion Questions:

Why is Plum allowed to wander freely around the zoo?

What three things do the peacocks do all day?

What do the peacocks meet for every morning?

What is a ningbing?

Where is the ningbing kept?

What animal is Kevin?

What does the squirrel take from a man at the zoo?

What else does the squirrel steal? Why is the squirrel stealing?

Who ordered the squirrels to frame the peacocks? Why do they want to frame the peacocks?

What sound does Plum make that annoys Hampstead?

Why is the Great Tree the hub for the Peacocks?

Who does Plum interview first?  Next?

Who yells at Jeremy and scares him? Why are they yelling at him?

What do they call Jeremy when he can’t roar? Is it okay to name call an animal?  Why or why not?

What job does Plum offer Jeremy?

How long are the peacocks pinned up?

What does Itch say he will do as an ambassador?

Who jumps in the control booth? What do they do in the control booth?

Who sees the brochure and starts thinking? What do they start thinking about?

What do Itch and Plum do before Plum leaves?

Book Talk Teasers:

Read the reader's theater for Leave it to Plum. 

Watch the book trailer for Leave it to Plum. 

Read Alikes: 

Bruel Nick. Bad Kitty gets a bath. Take a humorous look at the normal way cats bathe, why it is inappropriate for humans to bathe that way, and the challenges of trying to give a cat a real bath with soap and water. Includes fun facts, glossary, and other information. (NoveList Plus)

Swift, Bella. The pug who wanted to be a unicorn. Taken in by a foster family whose little girl wants a unicorn, instead of a puppy, for Christmas, Peggy the pug decides she will become a unicorn, with hilarious results, to find her forever home.(NoveList Plus)

Watson, Tom. A tale of two kitties. When Stick Cat hears terrible noises and a violent crash, he must navigate his way across the alley to rescue a man trapped in a building. (Novel List Plus)

Colton, Nicola. The cool cat club. Jasper has everything he could want - a fancy apartment, bow ties in every colour and a large book collection. The only thing he's missing is the right type of friends! Jasper wants to become a member of `The Sophisticats', a society for exceptional felines, more than anything. When they accept Jasper's dinner invitation, he knows his chance to impress has arrived. But a boisterous puppy called Scruff follows Jasper home and his evening doesn't quite go to plan. (Novel List Plus)

Jacobs, Paull DuBois. A furry fiasco. “The Animal Inn is an all-inclusive pet resort/hotel/center/spa for animals from dogs to rabbits, cats to ducks, parrots to lizards. From doggie and kitty daycare, to grooming, and group play--you name it, and the Animal Inn has it. The Inn is run by theTyler family along with their pets Leopold, the Macaw; Fuzzy and Furry, the gerbils; dogs Dash and Coco; felines Shadow and Whiskers; and a rollicking horde of animal visitors. When the animals hear that a new boarder--a Komodo Dragon--will be coming to the Inn, they panic! Is it a fire-breathing dragon? Will it gobble them all up and then devour their family? What's to become of the Animal Inn?"--From publisher's website.(Novel List Plus)

Reviews:

Phelan, Matt. Leave it to Plum! HarperCollinsPublishers/Greenwillow Books. 2022.

Booklist

Leave It to Plum! 

By Matt Phelan. Illus. by the author. 

June 2022. 128p. HarperCollins/Greenwillow, $16.99 (9780063079168) Grades 3-5.

REVIEW: 

First Published May 15, 2022 (Vol. 118, No. 18) (Booklist)

Plum the peacock is an exuberant ambassador at the Athensville Zoo, part of the grounds’ long tradition of free-roaming peacocks. Plum and the rest of his flock are charged with welcoming and interacting with the human visitors, happily hopping into selfies or helpfully pointing the way to exhibits. But trouble is brewing in the form of disgruntled ningbing Itch, a tiny Australian marsupial who seethes about the unfairness of his own captivity while the foolish birds are free to roam. He conspires to displace the peacocks and take over as a more educational ambassador, and it’s up to Plum to sort out the schemes and keep the zoo humming. The story is a hoot, combining the hilarity of chatty zoo animals with more somber undertones of loneliness, though everyone has found their perfect place by the conclusion. Plum is a chipper and generous, if not sweetly oblivious, guide through the proceedings, while the ningbing is delightfully menacing, and cartoonish sketches enhance the lighthearted tone. Young readers will relish this splendid hullabaloo at the zoo. — Emily Graham 

Used with the permission of Booklist  https://www.booklistonline.com/

School Library Journal (April 1, 2022) 

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 © Copyright 2022. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. 

Reprinted with permission from School Library Journal ©2022

Additional Reviews Available

• Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, 06/01/22

• Horn Book Magazine, 09/01/22

• Publishers Weekly, 05/16/22