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! Award-winning author Matt Phelan delivers a highly illustrated young middle-grade duology about a young peacock with a big heart, a small mammal with a big ego, and the busy zoo they both live in. A must-have for fans of The Princess in Black and Mercy Watson series!
LEAVE IT TO PLUM!
by Matt Phelan
Greenwillow/HarperCollins, June 2022
(via Writers House)
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 duology.
Matt Phelan is the creator of the graphic novels The Storm in the Barn (winner of a Scott O’Dell Award); Around the World; Bluffton; and the New York Times bestseller Snow White. He is also the author of Knights vs. Dinosaurs, Knights vs. Monsters, and Knights vs. the End (of Everything). Matt Phelan lives in Ardmore, Pennsylvania.

The very first passengers to ride in a hot air balloon were a sheep, a rooster, and a duck in 1783. And while hot air balloons are indeed wondrous, ten-year-old Emile is too busy being the fastidious caretaker of ambassador Benjamin Franklin’s château in Paris to think much about them. But forces both good and nefarious are after the wonderful—and sometimes dangerous—inventions in Franklin’s notebook. Soon, young Emile finds himself right in the middle of a sinister plot. And right in the middle of the secret headquarters for France’s undercover heroes—the same sheep, rooster, and duck that piloted the first hot air balloon. If Emile can muster his courage and be bold, he may be the key to helping the heroes save both Benjamin Franklin and the world.