Daring Deeds on Deadline!:Zoe's Jungle by Bethanie Deeney Murguia

ABOVE THE JUNGLE FLOOR THE FEARLESS EXPLORER GLIMPSES A RARE SPOTTED ADDIEBEAST.

SHE SAILS THROUGH THE TREETOPS,

QUICKLY CLOSING IN ON THE ELUSIVE CREATURE.

"ZOE! ONLY FIVE MORE MINUTES!!!"

Zoe and her little sister are with Mom at the park. At least, Mom thinks they are at the park. Zoe and Addie know that they are actually in a tropical rain forest.

Zoe sees herself as the intrepid explorer, with pith helmet and binoculars. Addie is a swift, spotted jungle cat, the elusive Addiebeast, and and Zoe is on her trail through the forest canopy.

Mom thinks it's time to go home. When she warns that playtime is about up, Zoe is on the verge of a wild reaction. She launches a protest, but Mom is adamant about her deadline!

"FOUR MORE MINUTES.....!!!"

Is there no respect for the explorer and her quest? Protest yields no extension, so Zoe throws herself into the chase. Time is short, and the Addiebeast is wily.

Swinging from vines (the monkey bars), crossing a log bridge over an alligator-infested river (the balancing beam), and slithering through the dense growth on the jungle floor (shrubs), Zoe follows brief glimpses of the lithe Addiebeast's tufted tail, and relentlessly closes in on her quarry.

"ONE MINUTE!!!!

...A LIFETIME OF PREPARATION COMES DOWN TO THIS MOMENT, CHASING THE WILD ADDIEBEAST TO ITS TREETOP LAIR.

And by the time Mom calls time and heads for the car, the capture is complete, and Zoe and Addie, their dresses not even mussed, return safe and sound from the jungle, with quite a story to tell, in Bethanie Deeney Murguia's latest Zoe adventure, Zoe's Jungle (Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic Press, 2014), an ebullient celebration of the joys of imaginative free play. The sisters appear both in dainty girly frocks when their mother calls to them, and as an eager explorer and an elusive great cat when lost in their fantasy play. Murguia's light ink and watercolor illustrations capture the special time and place that the sisters inhabit during their leafy adventure on the wild side, a special world that children will recognize as their own.

Murguia's previous stories about the winsome and strong-minded Zoe are Zoe Gets Ready and Zoe's Room (No Sisters Allowed) (See my reviews here).

Two Can-Can, Too! Cockatoo, Too! by Bethanie Deeney Murguia

COCKATOO.

COCKATOO, TOO?

COCKATOO, TWO?

What looks like an elegant tropical glade is really a word-play playground as a lonely cockatoo, and one more, too, become two. Yes, and a cockatoo can wear a tutu, and two can wear tutus, and two more in tutus can join the two cockatoos in tutus in a can-can.

Sure they can!

But what about a toucan? Can a toucan can-can, too?

Can a toucan in a tutu can-can? Yes, he can. But then, too, what about two more toucans in tutus? Can those two toucans can-can, too? Can they can-can two-by-two? WHOooo? asks a justly befuddled owl from the treetop.

And can two + two tutued cockatoos can-can like two + two tutued toucans can can-can? Can they all can-can to-gether?

Or can a little canary get the last word?

TOO-TOO MUCH!

Bethanie Deeney Murguia's Cockatoo, Too! (Little Bee Books, 2016) can do it all, with wonderful words that play with tongue-twisting homophone puns and irreverent rhymes amid illustrious illustrations that set it all off perfectly. Beginning with the front endpapers, delightful fronds of jungle greenery which resolve, optical illusion-style, into toucans, cockatoos, and perhaps even a canary or two, the artist proceeds with double-page spreads which reveal the stars of the show appearing slyly from the foliage to dance from page to page to the tune of a text that delights the eye, the ear, and the mind.

Murguia leaves only one question unasked: Can two cocks cock-a-doodle-and can-can in tutus, too?

Or, as Dr. Seuss* has his little straight man conclude...,

*Stop it. Stop it.That's enough, sir.
I can't say such silly stuff, sir.
                       --Fox in Socks

Long Live The Queen! Zoe's Room (No Sisters Allowed) by Bethanie Deeney Murguia

Zoe loves her room, especially at bedtime.

Every night, Mama gives her a kiss and turns off the light.

Zoe turns it right back on again.

In her room after bedtime, Zoe is Queen. She builds kingdoms, explores strange lands, entertains her royal court, Teddy bear and all, for tea, and stargazes through her special window on the heavens. It's Zoe's very own realm.

But one fateful day Mama delivers a decree that dethrones Zoe and deprives her of her rule over her room.

"Zoe, it's time for Addie to move out of Mama and Papa's room.  She's going to be your roommate."

Suddenly Zoe's room is not her room anymore. Addie's crib goes right where Zoe's royal tea table has always been. With a toddler in the room, lights out means LIGHTS OUT! No more nighttime revels in her kingdom for Queen Zoe. No royal tea parties and no more nocturnal explorations.  And when her little sister lets out a loud WAAAA!  in the middle of the night, Zoe suspects why Mama and Papa were only too happy for Addie to graduate to being her roommate.

Deposed Queen Zoe is miffed at her demotion from her castle and kingdom--until one night a storm rolls through, with lots of lightning and thunderboomers crashing.   Zoe is full of spunk and ginger, but not too independent to mind having a sister as company on a dark and stormy night, in Bethanie Murguia's  brand-new Zoe's Room (No Sisters Allowed) (Scholastic, 2013). Murguia's comic and assertive illustrations of the strong-minded Zoe are scintillating in a story that will resonate with many an older brother or sister forced to cohabitate with a younger sibling. "Murguia's dark blue washes set the quiet night tone, and Zoe's abundant curiosity shines from the top of her crown to the bottom of her stretched tippy-toes," reports Kirkus Reviews.

Pair this one with Zoe's hilarious debut book, Zoe Gets Ready for a double dose of Zoe-styled pizazz. (See my review here.)

Dressing Up Is Hard To Do: Zoe Gets Ready by Bethanie Deeney Murguia

ON SCHOOL DAYS, SOCCER DAYS, AND RAINY DAYS, SOMEONE ELSE ALWAYS CHOOSES WHAT ZOE WILL WEAR.

But it's Saturday and the possibilities are endless.

Zoe knows that the clothes make the day.

But what kind of day will it be? If it's a spinning-till-she's-as-light-as-a-feather day, the full purple circle skirt will be perfect. But if it's a cartwheel sort of a day, Zoe will need to wear her pink polka-dot leotard and tights. Hmmmmmm!

Mama calls impatiently from downstairs.

"ZOE! COME ON!"

"ALMOST READY, MAMA!" CALLS ZOE.

But Zoe's mind is already spinning and cartwheeling away. The skirt and the tights drop to the floor as she imagines other possibilities. If it's a collecting day, she'll need something with lots and lots of pockets. But if it's a hide-and-seek sort of day, her green outfit and a flowery headband will help her blend in with the outdoor scene. On the other hand... does she want to meld with the background or does she want to make a statement--in a ruffly, shrimp-colored skirt and a lo-o-ong trailing scarf....?

"ZOEEEEEE! NOW!"

Getting dressed is hard to do in Bethanie Murguia's brand-new Zoe Gets Ready (Scholastic, 2012). Parents who are veterans of the wardrobe wars will laugh ruefully and groan inwardly as the rejected outfits pile up on the floor, but little girls will understand Zoe's dilemma perfectly as her glance falls on those gauzy fairy wings still hanging on her closet door. What if it's a fly-in-the-sky day? A girl needs to be prepared for anything, and there's only one thing to do....

Can she wear it all?