The Wildest Day at the Zoo

Rhino keeper Mr Raja is bored. Insect keeper Miss Ingleby is bored. Head keeper Mr Pickles decides all the keepers will swap animals for a day. Good idea but I too was bored by the monotonous pace of this chaotic tale of zoo mayhem at Melton Meadow Zoo. It just doesn’t go anywhere. It’s wacky and fun to start with but there isn’t enough to sustain the reader’s attention over 96 pages. Uninspiring illustrations don’t begin to save this book. Severe editing and reworking as a picture book might save it. Possibly not. Rusbridger is editor of the Guardian.