Read Zoe’s Rescue Zoo 2 – The Puzzled Penguin free for 7 days. £7.99/month after - less than a paperback.
Amelia Cobb's The Puzzled Penguin is a gentle Zoe's Rescue Zoo story for 5 year olds about a baby penguin chick who doesn't know what a penguin is.
Zoe Parker lives at the Rescue Zoo with her mum, who's the zoo vet. She also has an amazing secret. She can talk to the animals (and they talk back!).
It's the start of the summer holidays and Zoe has big plans. Then grumpy Mr Pinch, the zoo manager, gives her a job to keep her out of his way. She has to sell tickets for a new penguin feeding show. Every single day.
Luckily, things perk up fast. Great-Uncle Horace lands his little red seaplane on the lake, back from the Antarctic. Tucked in a blanket is Pip, a fluffy emperor penguin chick who's only three weeks old.
Pip hatched from an egg all alone on the ice. The only faces he's ever seen are Great-Uncle Horace and Kiki the macaw. So when Zoe tells him how much he'll love the other penguins, he just looks puzzled. He's never met one!
What follows is very sweet and very silly. Pip thinks he might be a flamingo, so he tries standing on one leg and falls on his fluffy bottom. Then he decides he could be a zebra (they're black and white, after all). Meep, Zoe's cheeky mouse lemur, can't stop giggling.
Zoe gets so busy helping Pip that she forgets the tickets completely. Mr Pinch is NOT impressed. So she comes up with a plan that involves her wetsuit, her goggles and a pair of yellow armbands.
It's worth knowing that Pip's parents are gone before he even hatches. Great-Uncle Horace explains it very softly and it isn't dwelt on, but a tender-hearted little one might have a question or two.
If you've got a reader who adores animals, the idea of secretly chatting to them is pure magic. Who wouldn't want a lemur for a best friend? And Pip not knowing where he fits in is something lots of small people will recognise.
If Zoe and Meep win them over, The Lonely Lion Cub is another Rescue Zoo adventure, with the same zoo, the same giggly lemur and the same very grumpy Mr Pinch.
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