Zoey and Sassafras 5 – The Pod and the Bog

For 6 year olds who love growing things, Asia Citro's The Pod and the Bog is a magical plant mystery that starts at bedtime.

What happens

This is the fifth Zoey and Sassafras book. Zoey is in her pyjamas and Mum is about to start the bedtime story when the barn doorbell rings. Outside is Pip, the purple talking frog, struggling under a glowing rainbow ball the size of a football.

It isn't a stone. It's a seed pod from a magical plant, and Pip has never seen one like it. What if it's really rare? What if it's the last one?

So Zoey sets out to find where it belongs. Her big botany book is no help, and the pod won't open. Until she makes up a song about it while she paces around the barn (the rhymes are very, very silly) and it swings open!

Inside are twenty-four shiny black seeds, and this is where the book really gets going. Zoey plants them four to a pot in six different things, from rocks and sand to stream water and moss. Change one thing and keep everything else the same. It's a proper experiment, with Pip doing the counting.

The seeds grow, but the plants are VERY fussy. Some of them turn to purple ash overnight. Zoey is heartbroken, and at one point she sobs that she might be the one who makes this plant extinct.

That's the sad part, and it comes round more than once. Her mum is lovely about it (she says she'd have done exactly the same). And every loss tells them something new about what the plant needs. A tender-hearted reader might want a cuddle for those chapters.

The fun is being right there with Zoey as she pieces it together. Too dry, too sunny, too much water. Soggy... soggy... BOGGY!

Dad is a joy too. He can't see anything magical, so when the barn fills with the most amazing smell, all he sees is a row of pots full of sand and moss. He tells Zoey kindly that he's sure something will grow for her eventually. Mum has to cough to hide her laugh.

Got a reader who likes solving a mystery right alongside the main character? There's lots here to chew on. And Pip turning up on Zoey's head when she least expects it never gets old.

What to read next

If they enjoyed watching Zoey test lots of things side by side, Unicorns and Germs does it with petri dishes. A very large baby unicorn turns up with a sore leg, and Zoey has to grow the germs herself to find out what will help.