book cover

The Zebra’s Great Escape

by Katherine Rundell, illustrated by Sara Ogilvie

Interest age: 6 to 8
Reading age: 6+

Published by Bloomsbury, 2022

  • Adventure
  • Picture books

About this book

One evening, Mink is swinging in the park when a long tongue licks some snot from her nostril. It’s a baby zebra, and he needs help. When they press their foreheads together, Mink sees colours in her head. The colours make pictures, and the zebra tells her that his parents were snatched up and taken away by an evil man with shiny boots and a thin smile.

Mink knows she has to help Gabriel the zebra. But how? He can’t live in her bedroom forever, cosy as it is. She chats to the neighbour’s dog, and soon a chain of animals is passing on the urgent message to look out for two zebras in a cage. Will they find Gabriel’s parents in time?

With echoes of 101 Dalmatians and its sequel, The Starlight Barking, this is a modern classic in the making. Award-winning author Katherine Rundell showcases her trademark adventurous storytelling and huge warmth, while the stunning illustrations by Sara Ogilvie pack the pages with character and energy. The text is slightly longer than that of a standard picture book, and any child in Key Stage 1 would love to have this read to them.

About the author

Katherine Rundell spent her childhood in Africa and Europe. After completing a degree in English and a doctorate on John Donne, she is now a full-time writer and a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, where she studies Renaissance literature and climbs old buildings at night.

Katherine is the bestselling author of The Wolf Wilder and Rooftoppers, which won the Waterstones Children's Book Prize and the Blue Peter Book Award and was shortlisted for many others. In 2017 Katherine won the Costa Children's Book Award for The Explorer. She has also been selected as one of the Aarhus39 – 39 of the leading children's writers from across Europe – and one of the Hay30 'writers and thinkers'.

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