YOUNGER FICTION
Phelan, Matt

Trouble Finds Plum!

(2) 1-3 Plum, a "peppy little purple peacock" at the Athensville Zoo, is the only animal in his enclosure one rainy day when Scratch, a bossy, greedy raccoon, and his gang invade the zoo. The subsequent chaos disrupts what had been a bucolic home. Plum and his friends--including a domestic cat named Jeremy, a ningbing named Itch, a family of chipmunks, and a bear who lives in the nearby woods--work together to solve the problem. The comic sequel to Leave It to Plum!(rev. 9/22) is heavily illustrated with Phelan's movement-filled black-and-white drawings. Plum sports expressive curly feathers that stand at attention when he is happy but crumple when Scratch is demanding something. At important points in the story, wordless spreads convey the drama of the moment. As he did in the previous book, Phelan weaves ideas important to elementary-school students through the story. Plum accomplishes his goal by working with others; Scratch realizes that family can be made from those who care about you, even if they are not the same species; and all the zoo animals learn about leadership and problem-solving.

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