The Zebra's Great Escape

by Katherine Rundell, Sara Ogilvie (Illustrator)

Overview

In the vein of Islandborn and If Dominican Were a Color comes a picture book by bestselling author Katherine Rundell about a zebra trying to get back home to his family and the little girl who helps him.

Mink doesn’t believe in rules. She loves letting her hair down and getting the most out of life. So when a loose zebra appears in the square where she lives—and she finds out that his parents have been captured by the evil Mr. Spit—she’ll do what it takes to make sure the zebra family can run as wild and free as she does.

In this tale of bravery, friendship, and the importance of taking action, Mink uses all her courage and determination to rescue a whole menagerie of animals.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781481491648
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Publication date:	08/20/2024
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	64
Age Range:	5 - 9 Years

About the Author

Katherine Rundell is the author of Rooftoppers, Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms (a Boston Globe–Horn Book Award winner), The Wolf Wilder, The Explorer, The Good Thieves, and The Zebra’s Great Escape. She grew up in Zimbabwe, Brussels, and London, and is currently a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. She begins each day with a cartwheel and believes that reading is almost exactly the same as cartwheeling: it turns the world upside down and leaves you breathless. In her spare time, she enjoys walking on tightropes and trespassing on the rooftops of Oxford colleges.

Sara Ogilvie is an illustrator and printmaker and was the 2011 BookTrust Best New Illustrators Award winner. Dogs Don’t Do Ballet, which she illustrated, was shortlisted for the 2010 Roald Dahl Funny Prize and the 2010 BookTrust Early Years Award. Sara lives in lives in Newcastle upon Tyne in the north of England.
 

Editorial Reviews

★ 04/15/2024

Writing in the tradition of rumbustious British children’s classics, Rundell (One Christmas Wish) introduces Mink, a headstrong city-dwelling child who “did not believe in bedtimes.” Her surprising encounter with a baby zebra named Gabriel in a park—deserted because all the other children are home in bed—leads to a search for the mustachioed villain who has captured Gabriel’s parents. Mink first learns Gabriel’s telepathic form of communication (“The colors shifted and sharpened. They were red, and orange, and urgent”), then tries it out with other animals to appeal for information about Gabriel’s family. Startlingly fresh descriptions (“A long tongue reached out and licked a little snot from the inside of Mink’s nostril”), comedic dialogue (“I swear it on the life of my goldfish”), and rousing adventure (“To ride on the back of a zebra! That was a thing not even a king could do”) keep this cracking yarn galloping toward a theatrical climax. Boldly lined and colored artwork by Ogilvie (Dogs Don’t Do Ballet) contributes additional bursts of comic energy to a rollicking hero story for a new generation of wildlife protectors. Human characters are portrayed with pale skin. Ages 5–9. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

★ 2024-05-17
A young girl befriends a frightened zebra—and a host of other animals.

Rundell’s three-part text is longer than that of most contemporary picture books, like something from William Steig or Roald Dahl. And what a story it is! Mink, a light-skinned, dark-haired girl, forms a telepathic bond with a young zebra. Named Gabriel, the zebra has escaped from bad guy Mr. Spit, a light-skinned animal collector who seems styled after Snidely Whiplash. He and all the characters Ogilvie illustrates are filled with a vitality that would do Quentin Blake proud, heightening the story’s humor and helping to visualize how Mink wordlessly communicates with Gabriel and the other animals they encounter. First, they enlist the help of Rainbow, a grumpy dog with a heart of gold. He activates something of an animal-kingdom whisper network that sends a message to find Gabriel’s parents, whom Mr. Spit has imprisoned as the last victims in his dastardly plan to capture, kill, stuff, and display a pair of animals for each letter of the alphabet. But Mink stirs up good mischief as she and the animals join forces to defeat Mr. Spit. Baked into this satisfying story are messages about compassion, courage, and helping others, morals are effortlessly integrated.

A throwback to an earlier era of children’s publishing, in the absolute best of ways. (Picture book. 4-9)

Kirkus Reviews