Zoo Zoom!

There’s a rocket ship parked outside the zoo, Monkey has the key, and all of his zoo-mates are game for an extraterrestrial joyride. Some of them—Buffalo, Flamingo, Crocodile—take to the controls like Han Solo. But there are loose cannons on board, too: Pronghorn brings a French horn, and Rhino falls asleep against a lever, threatening to send the ship hurtling far further into space than anyone intends. Pamintuan’s (the Alien in My Pocket series) digital illustrations have the energy and strong characterizations of classic animation, while Ryan’s (Ewe and Aye) text is a kind of smorgasbord: simple sentences (“Flamingo calls, ‘Go!’ Kiwi cries, ‘Whee!’ ”) are followed by rhetorical questions with internal rhymes (“Which seat can’t be beat?”) and a refrain built around the word “zoo” (“Zoo Vroom! Zoo Vroom!”). It doesn’t do much to move the story forward, but the method behind the madness becomes clear in the final pages, where the text takes on a canyon echo effect as the animals return home: “Crocodile dial./ Pronghorn horn./ Buffalo low./ Cockatoo, too.” Ages 3–6. Illustrator’s agent: Mela Bolinao, MB Artists. (Nov.)