Plum, neither a lump of coal nor that pony that you wanted

Plum is the back story behind the Sugar Plum Fairy. How did she get her wings? What’s up with that green outfit? Is Captain Planet her father? What are her super powers? All of these things, and more are questions that I’ve never entertained. Actually, truth be told I did see Nutcracker and the Four Realms and saw lots of a ‘Plum’ type character in that film. Thankfully that film has been purged from my short term memory and now the only notion of her is when she’s dancing in my head whilst I read The Night Before Christmas.

Plum is a book by Sean Hayes and Scott Icenogle, with illustrations by Robin Thompson that aims to provide her a front seat at the Christmas hall of fame. Plum is a smaller than average girl at the Mary Fitzgerald Orphanage. She often gets picked on, is quite artistic, loves dogs and doesn’t get along too well with the other girls.

A major snow storm is approaching the area on Christmas Eve, which will prohibit any delivery people from getting through. Plum gets her craft mojo working and creates a small something for each resident, placing it under their pillows before she goes to sleep. Before she can zip off to slumberland she hears a ruckus downstairs. She races down the stairs to see Mr. Rosselmeyer, the local magician who has left a small gift behind for her.

Plum opens the gift to discover a cupcake, a magical cupcake that transports her to The Land of Sweets. Alas, things are not right, they’re grayer than they should be and the townspeople are happy, jolly or snacking on sweets in the slightest.  Can Plum and her irrepressible optimism and charm cure what ails the formerly Land of Sweets?

The art in Plum is the stuff that kids, almost exclusively girls, aged 4 through 8 will enjoy. The text is on a level that will contain many sight words for first graders and will be able to read by third graders all the way through. It’s a sweet story that kids will enjoy, but there’s nothing magical about Plum. Even the most diehard Sugar Plum Fairy fan will be hard pressed to do candy jumping jacks after reading the book. They’ll be pleased to read it, but it’s unlikely to be a book that they’ll request more than a couple of times as their good-night book.