Zoey and Sassafras 3 – Merhorses and Bubbles

Asia Citro's Merhorses and Bubbles is a magical science mystery for 6 year olds about a stream where all the bugs have suddenly vanished.

What happens

This is the third Zoey and Sassafras book. Zoey has made an underwater viewer out of an old plastic jar and some cling film. She's off to show her cat the baby mayflies, with their gills fluttering like hummingbird wings (Sassafras would mostly like to eat them).

Except there aren't any. Rock after rock, nothing. Just lots of cold, slimy algae.

Mum and Dad go very serious when she tells them, and send her straight off to scrub her hands AND her feet. Then Zoey and her mum test a cup of the water with proper kit, gloves on and goggles over her eyes. The results aren't good.

That's when the magic doorbell rings. On the step is Pip, a purple talking frog covered in neon spots, who Zoey has heard stories about and been dying to meet. The merhorses are in trouble. Their eyes sting, their skin itches and they can't find anything to eat. So who's putting soap in the water, and why does it seem to get worse at weekends?

Merhorses, by the way, are tiny horses at the front and fish at the back. They live in hidden caves built from stones that glow every colour of the rainbow. Who wouldn't want one of those at the bottom of the garden?

Zoey is lovely company. She's chatty and impatient and keeps forgetting words ("nymphs" is the one that always escapes her). Her science journal pops up as she goes, with a question, her observations and a conclusion. Your reader picks up how a real scientist works without anyone giving a lecture.

Pip is the comedy. He rides around on Zoey's head because he can see better from up there. Dad can't see magical creatures at all, so he invents a pretend frog called Plop and offers to make them all dead fly sandwiches. Pip is NOT impressed.

The worry in it is gentle but real. The merhorses are hungry, and one says they don't know how many more days they can last, which a soft-hearted reader might feel. Mum is never far away, though, and Zoey gets straight to work.

There's a picture on most spreads and a short glossary at the back, so it's a nice step up for a newly confident reader.

What to read next

If your reader wants to go right back to where it all started, try Dragons and Marshmallows. It's the one where Zoey spots a glowing purple frog in an old photo of her mum and finds out what the barn is really for.