Zoe’s Rescue Zoo 1 – The Lonely Lion Cub

Amelia Cobb's The Lonely Lion Cub is an animal story for 5 year olds about a girl with a very big secret and a tiny lion who won't eat.

What happens

Zoe Parker lives at the Rescue Zoo, where her mum is the vet. There's an elephant in her garden and a mouse lemur called Meep asleep at the end of her bed. And ever since her sixth birthday she's been able to understand what animals say (and talk back!).

Nobody else knows. Not even Mum.

This is the first Rescue Zoo book, so you get the story of how it all started. It was Kiki the parrot who told Zoe the secret, and made her promise to keep it.

Then Great-Uncle Horace floats in by hot-air balloon with a crate. Inside is a lion cub he found all alone on the Serengeti. The cub is frightened and very weak, and he's too sad to touch his food.

Zoe has promised to help. The trouble is that grumpy Mr Pinch, the zoo manager, has banned her from the zoo hospital. So she creeps in after dark with a torch. Who wouldn't?

It's such a cosy, gentle read. Meep steals every scene. He blows a raspberry at Mr Pinch, calls Great-Uncle Horace "Goo" and is sure the Pacific is called the Specific. There's lots to giggle at, and lots of animal facts tucked in along the way.

It's worth knowing that the cub tells Zoe how his family were taken by poachers while he was off drinking at the lake. He heard shouting and loud bangs. Nothing is shown and it's told very simply, but a sensitive little one might want a cuddle at that point. Zoe's plan also involves Leonard, the zoo's grumpiest lion, and Mum does warn that big male lions can be dangerous to cubs.

If you've got an animal-mad reader who dreams of living in a zoo, this is a lovely place to start.

What to read next

For two more children hoping to meet a lion, this time on a real safari in Kenya, try The Mystery of the Lion's Tail. Ethan and Ella are desperate to spot one before their week is up.