Review Detail

The Last Plum: A Mini and Milo Book

Kids Fiction 251

How to deal with disappointment and difficulties

November 10, 2025 (Updated: June 19, 2026)

Overall rating

4.0

Plot

4.0

Characters

4.0

Writing Style

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

4.0

Mini really wants to enter a plum pie in the Delicious and Delightful cooking competition, especially since she's won first prize three years in a row. However, when she assembles her ingredients, she is one plum short (because she was shown snacking on them in a previous page!). Unwilling to make a smaller pie or use a different dish, she asks her friend Milo for the last plum on his tree. Since he has been waiting for it to ripen for a long time, he declines to share it with his friend. Mini even offers him plenty of things in trade, but he just really wants that plum. Mini goes to the store, but they are all out of plums. She decides to wake up at 5 a.m. and steal Milo's plum, but this does not go to plan. The ladder she is using breaks, Milo wakes up, and the two engage in a rather violent altercation that ends in the last plum getting smushed. Mini feels horrible, and knows that her need to be competitive has hurt her friend's feelings. She apologizes, and when Milo sees that she is truly sorry he forgives her. Mini plans to make a carrot cake instead of the pie, since carrots are Milo's favorite. She doesn't win the baking contest, mainly because she and Milo eat the cake all by themselves.

Good Points

Curtin's digitally created illustrations are clear and bright, and I loved the fine lines and delicate facial expressions on the friends. There are plenty of details in the pictures, and fun things to look for on the pages. I particularly like the cooking competition which showed the sea gulls entry of french fries, a tall wedding cake made by a giraffe, and a monkey's banana split. Best of all: the snake eating candied apples!

It's hard for children to understand why they can't have something they really want, so Mini's urge to get Milo's last plum at any cost rings true. While the resulting fracas is a bit humorous, there is an underlying emotional response that many young people need to learn to control.

Mini and Milo have starred in a number of other books that help children navigate difficult situations and regulate their emotions, and the tag line for them is "big skills for mini people". The skill taught in this book is "competitiveness", but sharing plays a role in Milo and Mini's confrontation as well.

This book can handily share a shelf with Diffee's Zip Zap Wickety Wack, Finison and Farley's Dozens of Doughnuts, Peacock and Sheehan's Lionel and the Lion's Share, Collins' There's a Bear in My Chair, and Lester and Munsinger's All for Me and None For All. It's interesting to see that so many books about sharing involve animals!