The Great Zoo Hullabaloo by Mark Carthew and Anil Tortop

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HULLABALOO! M A RK C

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HULLABALOO!

For Carolyn, Michael, Laura and Simon — MC To my partner in crime, Ozan — AT With special thanks to the May Gibbs Children’s Literature Trust, Sally Chance, Judith Russell, State Library of Queensland, Deb and Den Strudwick, Julie Botten and Garry Conner, Janene Gardner and Mary Marks, and Hazel Edwards OAM. This book was written with the assistance of a Creative Time Residential Fellowship provided by the May Gibbs Children’s Literature Trust.

Published in Australia 2017

by New Frontier Publishing Pty Ltd ABN 67 126 171 757 48 Ross Street, Glebe NSW 2037, Australia www.newfrontier.com.au Text copyright © 2017 Mark Carthew Illustrations copyright © 2017 Anil Tortop This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted by the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission.

Enquiries should be addressed to the publishers.

All rights reserved.

A Cataloging-in-Publication entry for this book is available from the National Library of Australia.

ISBN: 9781925059786 Designed by Celeste Hulme Printed in China 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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HULLABALOO! Mark Carthew Illustrated by Anil Tortop

When Jess and Jack opened the gates to the Zoo, it was strangely deserted. Nobody said BOO! ‘Where’s the new roo?’ said Jess, looking round.

‘It’s never this quiet. I can’t hear a sound.’

‘Oh dear! The rhino’s not here and instead of meerkats there are now only scats.’

The fidgety mole had dug a big hole and the great green macaw had escaped through a door.

The flock of flamingos had flown away too …

OVER and OUT of the top of the Zoo! ‘Jack, the whole lot have gone! What should we do?

No-one will queue for a creature-less zoo!’

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‘Hmmm,’ said Jack, looking down at the tracks.

‘Let’s follow the trail of the meerkats and moose, the flurry of feathers and down from the goose.

Our creatures love roaming around on the loose.’