Zoe’s Rescue Zoo 5 – The Eager Elephant

Amelia Cobb's The Eager Elephant is the fifth Zoe's Rescue Zoo story, a gentle animal adventure for 5 year olds about a baby elephant who wants to do EVERYTHING his big friend does.

What happens

Zoe lives at the Rescue Zoo, where animals her Great-Uncle Horace finds on his travels come to live. She also has a secret. Ever since her sixth birthday she's understood every squeak and roar the animals make (and she can talk back, as long as no grown-ups are listening).

This time Great-Uncle Horace comes home from Africa with a wooden crate about the same size as Zoe. Inside is a baby elephant who was separated from his herd when he was only a few hours old. He's wobbly on his legs, and he's already found the custard creams in Great-Uncle Horace's coat pocket!

Zoe names him Bertie. He moves in with Oscar, the zoo's big, gentle African elephant, and from then on Bertie wants to copy every single thing Oscar does. He'll only eat from Oscar's tall tree. He charges at a tractor because he thinks it's come to play. On Weigh Day he pushes past Oscar and hops on the scales first.

Meep the mouse lemur is along for all of it, of course. He's Zoe's best friend and easily the cheekiest animal in the zoo (he's just been told off by a koala for nibbling her leaves).

It's a very cosy read. Zoe catches a cold and has a day off school, and all the animals send advice. The hyena tells her a joke. The baby hippo recommends a nice sit in some squishy mud! Grumpy Mr Pinch, the zoo manager, is there to be grumbled about too.

There's a worry running underneath, though. Oscar is frightened of water, and he won't tell Zoe why. Bertie, on the other hand, LOVES water. You can probably guess that's going to matter, and there's one properly tense moment later on when Bertie gets into trouble in a lake.

If you've got a little one who adores animals and likes a story where everybody looks after each other, this is a lovely one to share. Who wouldn't want a best friend who can talk to elephants?

What to read next

For the night Zoe's secret began, The Lonely Lion Cub tells how a parrot called Kiki answered her back on her sixth birthday.