The Moonlight Zoo

Shades of turquoise and raspberry dominate the busily patterned illustrations by Mountford (The Circles in the Sky) that accompany this tale of a magical zoo where lost animals shelter each evening. Worrying about her missing cat, Luna, keeps Eva up at night, but when a sound from below her bed leads her to check beneath it, the tan-skinned, blue-eyed child, portrayed with hearing aids, peers “past old toys and puffs of fluff.” Underneath her bed frame, her flashlight’s beam reveals the Moonlight Zoo, where a friendly wolf invites Eva to look for Luna beyond an elaborately rendered paper-cut gate. Luna loves sardines and birds—is she with the penguins? A left-behind collar and a flash of tail sends Eva and the wolf on a race against time: “The zoo closes at dawn.... We must be quick,” writes Powell-Tuck (The Magical Christmas Store) in urgent prose. Not until the stars begin to fade does a lion’s roar remind the wolf of the natural place to look. It’s a low-key tale of suspense couched in safety and comfort. The idea of entering a fanciful zoo freely and mingling with the animals offers additional excitement and pleasure. Ages 3–7. (Oct.)