Daisy and the Trouble with Zoos

Daisy and the Trouble with Zoos by Kes Gray is a funny story for 5 year olds, told by a girl who is absolutely certain that none of it was her fault.

What happens

Daisy is seven today, and Mum is taking her to the zoo with Gabby and Dylan. There's a secret surprise as well, and it turns out to involve penguins, a bucket of fish and a zookeeper.

Something goes wrong. Daisy tells you so on the very first page. The zoo said something it didn't mean, and if a zoo says something it doesn't mean on a seven-year-old's birthday, then anything can happen.

She just won't tell you what yet.

Nearly every thought Daisy has starts with the trouble with something. The trouble with mums at 3:34 in the morning. The trouble with monkey houses. The trouble with counting flies on a lion's face (they never stay still, but the lion does).

The logic is where the laughs are. Daisy wakes Mum at 2:27 and points out that it's afternoon in Australia. Mum says they don't live in Australia. Daisy says she wishes they did. Mum says sometimes she wishes Daisy did too.

Then there's a whole car journey spent working out whether Gabby and Dylan could each hand over a fraction of their own birthdays, so that Daisy still gets older even if Mum cancels hers. Dylan does the sums. He's nine and he's going to be a computer when he grows up.

It reads aloud beautifully, because you can hear where all the capital letters go. Daisy uses a LOT of capital letters.

If you've got a child who tells you about their day with every single detour left in, they will recognise Daisy instantly. She is that child. She is also never wrong about anything, ever.

Nothing in here will worry anyone. The worst that happens is a snake skin gets bashed in half, and Nelly the Elephant gets sung with elephant-poo noises instead of the trump trump trump.

One warning. Your reader will very likely start saying the trouble with everything, out loud, for about a fortnight.

What to read next

Daisy is also extremely rude about a boy from school called Jack Beechwhistle, who she would only have invited to the zoo if they could have fed him to the lions. He gets his own turn as narrator in Jack Beechwhistle - Attack of the Giant Slugs, which is here too. According to Jack he's a junior defender of the world, his red front door is a disguise, and you want to keep an eye on his chimney.