Is This a Plum?

By Dan & Finn Ojari

Reviewed by Barbara Braxton

The fun starts on the front cover with the title, a cut-out that just invites you to open it and reveals… something entirely different to what you and your young reader were expecting,  And so it continues with each page revealing things like spiders and spoons but then revealing what they truly are!

Is this a house? No – it’s a MOUSE!

Each page encourages the reader to use both their imagination and their knowledge of rhyming words to predict what might actually be disclosed when the cut-out page is turned – and few are what you expect. How can a cupcake become a snake?

Created by a father-and-son team,  based on 8 year old Finn’s original ideas,  this is one that might well inspire an add-a-page activity that could encourage young readers to examine objects more closely and let their imaginations run wild as they try to outsmart their friends.

And given the final reveal where the plum really is a plum, after having been tricked so often, it could also be an opportunity to share Aesop’s fable about the boy who cried wolf.  

But within what seems to be a book about picture-and-word play, is a serious message  for those a bit older because the final page declares that the book is “dedicated to the truth” while the endpage has a note from Finn who says, “We hope this book made you laugh and think about what things really are. ” A timely reminder in an era of fake news and AI generated information that could spark discussions about perception, bias. hidden agendas, and stereotypes and encourage more critical thinking as we encourage students not to accept everything at face value but to seek the bigger picture. Maybe one person’s version of what was said/what happened isn’t the only one!  Just as this book is more than the fun and frivolity for preschoolers it seems at first glance!

Puffin, 2026

Dan Ojari

Barbara Braxton is the author of The Bottom Shelf