Katherine Rundell has done it again. The author of Rooftoppers – you have read it? - has produced another captivating book which can be read to young children and, I’d say, be read with pleasure by anyone.
The Zebra’s Great Escape (Bloomsbury, £14.99), has all the simplicity of a Roald Dahl story – an intrepid young heroine, an intelligent animal and a dastardly villain, made clear by his moustache and shiny boots. It’s probably set in Africa, where the author spent a decade as a child in Zimbabwe, for it features a baby zebra who is scared and in a city and wants to return home. The storytelling is excellent: the zebra’s breath is “hot and spitty” and his legs “as thin as walking sticks”. There’s real richness to the simple prose. The plot line draws on the device in 101 Dalmatians: The Twilight Barking. I’ll say no more; just to salute the jolly illustrations by Sara Ogilvie.
