Read Zoe’s Rescue Zoo 18 – The Messy Meerkat free for 7 days. £7.99/month after - less than a paperback.
Amelia Cobb's The Messy Meerkat, book 18 of Zoe's Rescue Zoo, is a muddy, giggly animal story for 5 year olds about a meerkat pup who's always looking for fun.
Zoe lives at her Great-Uncle Horace's Rescue Zoo, where her mum is the vet. She also has a secret. She understands every squeak and bark the animals make (and they understand her).
This time Great-Uncle Horace lands the zoo helicopter with a crate from Botswana. Inside is a family of six meerkats who lost their home in a flood. Zoe opens the gate to fetch her mum, and the biggest pup shoots straight past her.
That's Max. He isn't running away, he tells her. He's looking for fun.
He finds LOTS of it. A twisty tunnel his baby brother and sisters won't come out of. Mum's flowerbed, dug into a burrow, with a pansy stuck behind his ear. A snake enclosure, where he decides to go for a ride. Meanwhile Zoe is busy getting ready for the zoo's big summer treasure hunt, which was her idea.
Max's family want him to do his share, standing guard and grooming the babies. He'd rather not. Chores are for bores, he tells Zoe, and she has to hide her smile. Who hasn't felt like that about tidying their room?
It's a lovely one for reading together because the animal facts are slipped in so naturally. Meerkats warm up by pointing their tummies at the sun, a bit like solar panels. They can close their ears while they dig. One always stands on lookout while the others find food.
There's lots of cheeky chat too, mostly from Meep, Zoe's mouse lemur, who wonders if the new enclosure might be for a sand hippo. And grumpy Mr Pinch the zoo manager hates mess, so you can guess how he feels about a muddy meerkat on a lead.
If you've got a reader who loves animals and giggles at a bit of naughtiness, this is a cosy, happy read.
The series starts with The Lonely Lion Cub, which is in the library too. It shows how Zoe first found out she could understand the animals, and a tiny lion cub arrives who needs her help.
A library hand-picked by an English teacher, delivered through a calm, ad-free app. If your child already loves reading, we keep up.
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