Zoe’s Rescue Zoo 15 – The Curious Kangaroo

Amelia Cobb's The Curious Kangaroo is a bouncy Rescue Zoo story for 5 year olds about a baby kangaroo who wants to know about EVERYTHING.

What happens

Zoe Parker and her mum live in a cottage at the Rescue Zoo, along with Meep the mouse lemur. Zoe has a secret that only the animals know. She can talk to them!

One sunny day Great-Uncle Horace floats in by hot-air balloon. He's wearing a homemade pouch on his front, and peeping out of it are two furry ears. It's an eight-month-old joey from the Australian outback.

Great-Uncle Horace has to rush off to Peru the very next day. So who's going to be the joey's mum for a while? Zoe, of course! She gets to wear the pouch.

The joey tells Zoe her name is Bouncer. And she lives up to it.

Bouncer wants to see everything. Why don't snakes bounce? What's pouncing? Why do lions have such long hair? Every time Zoe turns her back she's off. Into the penguin pool with a splash. Out of the café with a half-eaten iced bun. And onto a shelf in the gift shop, sitting very still among the cuddly toys while a little boy asks if he can buy her!

Meanwhile grumpy Mr Pinch has a shiny new whistle and he toots it at EVERYTHING. The animals hate it (so does Zoe). Then a monkey steals it, and guess who gets sent to find it?

Do you have a "why?" person in your house? Bouncer is basically every five-year-old on a day out. Your reader will probably recognise themselves, and you might recognise the grown-up running along behind!

There's a school sports day thread running through it too, with Zoe practising for the sack race. It's the perfect excuse for a lot of bouncing.

One thing to know before you start. Great-Uncle Horace explains early on that Bouncer's mother was run over by a car, which is why he brought her home. It's one sentence, it's before the story begins, and Zoe comforts her straight away. A child who's sensitive about animals getting hurt might still need a cuddle.

What to read next

If this one goes down well, The Super Sloth is another Rescue Zoo story with a very different kind of arrival. A sleepy sloth turns up just as the zoo's new Rainforest Dome is about to open.