Author: Bill Peet
Genre: Family / Animals / Adoption / Drama / Africa
Year Published:1986
Year Read: 2016
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company
Source: Library
Content Rating: Ages 5+ (Some Intense Scenes and Parental Abandonment)
Buy or Add on: Amazon // Goodreads
I have read many of Bill Peet’s works in the past, but I had never read a story from Bill Peet that dealt with family issues
such as adopting a child and handle the issue with such care. “Zella,
Zack and Zodiac” has proven to be one of Bill Peet’s most heartwarming books that I had ever read!
The story starts off with a baby ostrich chick named
Zack who had just hatched out of his egg and it was then that he discovered
that his mother had left him when she heard a lion’s roar in the distance and
had taken the other chicks with her.
Suddenly at that moment, a zebra herd came zooming by and Zack tried to
yell up at them to help him, but none of the zebras took any notice of Zack. However, one zebra managed to hear Zack and
came to his aid. The zebra was named
Zella and she decided to raise Zack as if he was her own child and the two had
so many dangerous and heartwarming adventures on the savanna together. But unfortunately, as Zack the ostrich chick
got much older, he started to ignore Zella and Zella started to worry about
whether or not Zack remembered how she raised him for all those years and if he
still considers her his mother. Luckily,
it turned out that Zack remembered Zella and how she raised him and he ended up
greeting her after a few years apart from her.
It turns out that Zella is pregnant and she is expecting a baby soon and
she planned to call her child Zodiac.
When Zodiac was finally born, Zella was overjoyed, but then she realized
that there was something different about Zodiac…
What
is so unique about Zodiac and are Zella and Zack still together?
Read
this book to find out!
In all the times that I had read Bill Peet’s books, I never would have
thought that I would stumble upon a Bill
Peet book that would detail the importance of family while also discussing
about adopting a child who is different from you. Bill Peet has done a splendid job at portraying the relationship
between Zella the Zebra and Zack the Ostrich as they truly care for each other,
despite their different appearances and I loved the way that Zella went to
great lengths to protect Zack from any danger in the savanna as it shows how
much of a good adopted mother she is towards Zack. I also loved the fact that Bill Peet made this book much more
heartwarming than most of his works as it focuses on a zebra mother’s love for
both her adopted child and her real child and it made the book extremely
touching to read through. Bill Peet’s artwork is as beautiful as
ever as we get to see the savanna in all its glory and I loved seeing the
images of Zack riding on Zella’s back as they run across the savanna as it
makes it a truly iconic image for this book!
Overall, “Zella,
Zack and Zodiac” is a truly heartwarming book about the importance of
family and how two unlikely species managed to become a truly close and
effective family. I would recommend this
book to children ages five and up since there is nothing inappropriate in this
book, unless the scenes of the various predators going after Zella, Zack and
Zodiac might scare some children.
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