Zoe’s Rescue Zoo 9 – The Wild Wolf Pup

Amelia Cobb's The Wild Wolf Pup, the ninth Zoe's Rescue Zoo story, is a Halloween adventure for 5 year olds with a very noisy new arrival.

What happens

Zoe lives at the Rescue Zoo with her mum, who's the zoo vet, and her best friend Meep, a tiny grey mouse lemur. She also has a secret. She can talk to animals (and they talk back!).

It's nearly Halloween, and the zoo is planning a Spooktacular night with pumpkins, costumes and cupcakes. Zoe's class is going to sing at it, in front of more than two hundred people. Zoe is dreading it. Just thinking about it makes her mouth go dry and her words get muddled.

Then Great-Uncle Horace comes home from Alaska with a grey wolf pup who was separated from his pack by a forest fire. He's super playful. He bursts his new ball, chews through tyres and wants to play-fight with everyone (Meep decides to stay on Zoe's shoulder).

And he howls. All day and all night. Is he sad? Is he scared? Only Zoe can ask him.

It's a lovely mix of spooky and cosy. Cobwebs and grinning pumpkins sit right next to hot chocolate with marshmallows and a mum sewing furry ears on to a costume. Meep gets a fright at every Halloween mask, which younger listeners will find very funny.

There's something gentle underneath too. Zoe works out that being nervous can make you act a bit strangely, just like the new boy in her class last year. Just like the pup. If your little one gets butterflies before a school show, they might find that a comforting thought.

What to read next

If this one goes down well, go back to The Lonely Lion Cub, the first Rescue Zoo book. It tells how Zoe found out on her sixth birthday that she could understand animals, when a parrot called Kiki answered her back!