Alphabet+Zoop

Alphabet Zoop

Forward //This is a story that began as a collaborative project with two schools, one in Alabama and one in New Jersey. We will be continuing the story until we finally get to Z//.

One day there was a boy named Jimmy who went to his new school in Alabama. He met a nice girl named Alice and the first thing she said was "My name is Alice and I like to go to the Alabama Zoo and feed apples to the alligator there". Jimmy thought the girl was kind of crazy and said, "Why would you feed apples to the alligator?" "So it makes him healthier," replied Alice, "alligators like apples a lot!" The two went off to __#|class__. After school they both went to the zoo since it was on their way home. Jimmy tried to feed the alligator some fish that were in a bucket by the cage, but he did not like them. Alice gave him apples and he gobbled them up.

As Jimmy watched the alligator eat the apples he had a very strange thought. He shared it with Alice, " If alligators in Alabama zoos like to eat apples, would the bandicoots eat baba ganoush?" Now, Jimmy and Alice both knew bandicoots ([|info]) were from Australia and they ate earthworms, berries and grass seeds,but would they eat baba ganoush, a Levantine dish made from eggplants? It was worth a try. They agreed to run home, get permission from their parents, and money to buy the ingredients, and then meet up later.

Alice lived on the bay. She was tempted to go swimming before she called her mom to ask if it would be okay for her and Jimmy, her new friend, to make baba ganoush, but she called and then looked up the recipe. Meanwhile, Jimmy, who had just moved to town, was walking along a street when he realized nothing was familiar - oh no, he was lost!

Soon Jimmy found himself in front of a German Bakery.



He walked inside and everyone was wearing colored beads and masks. He asked the baker what was going on and he said, "Today is Shrove Tuesday, or Mardi Gras as they call it in the USA. Here, have a cruller (info). You look hungry." Jimmy ate the delicious crinkly donut.



"Can I have another for my friend, Alice?" He asked. The baker said "sure!" Jimmy thanked him and then asked how to get to the zoo because his friend had planned to meet him there.



When he got to the zoo, he saw Alice. She had made the baba ganoush. As they went over to the cage of the bandicoots, a little mongoose-like creature ran up and grabbed the bag Jimmy was holding and ran to the corner of the cage.



"Oh no!" shouted Jimmy, "that animal took my cruller". The zookeeper came over to see what all the fuss was about. The zookeeper said that strange things have been happening in his zoo lately. "First the alligators stopped eating their fish and now this. That little thief is called a cusimanse (info)", the zookeeper said. "We just got him from West Africa. He is supposed to eat small dead animals, but he seems to like American junk food. That's why he is so fat!" The cusimanse took the cruller out of the bag and gobbled it up.



Alice told the zookeeper that she was wondering if bandicoots would eat baba ganoush, since the other animals in the zoo seem to have a strange __#|diet__. "Let's find out", he said as they walked toward the bandicoot's cage.

Just as they arrived at the bandicoot's enclosure, there was a very loud screetch. "What was that?" shouted Jimmy and Alice. The zookeeper, Mr. Ortega, didn't have a clue so they ran towards the sound. The sound was coming from the dingo ([|info] )enclosure. "What in the world?" shouted Dr. Ortega in surprise. There in the enclosure was a a Mardi Gras masked man. "How did you get in there? asked the zookeeper. "Get out quick! That female has a pup and she isn't happy you are in her territory!" The masked man seemed a bit confused, but he moved fast.  Jimmy and Alice heard the sound of an approaching parade; the masked man heard it too and started to run towards the zoo exit.  Then Dr. Ortega, Jimmy and Alice ran after him.  Just as they got to the exit the masked man jumped into a cab.  "Where is he going, and why so fast?" queried Alice.  "I don't know and we can't follow him because the parade has stopped traffic," said Dr. Ortega.

"Let's go check on the dingo to be sure she and her pup are okay." As they approached the dingo enclosure it was evident something was wrong. The Mama dingo was frantically searching for something - her pup!

Dr. Ortega frantically ran around the cage with the mother Dingo. They did not find the pup, but they did find a plastic bowl with a sweet creamy food in it. A girl ran over to them. Her name was Daisy. "I saw this man sitting by the Dingo cage wearing a mask", she told them. "He was eating something from that bowl and the pup tried to lick it through the cage, so he reached over the wall over there and fell in while he was trying to give it to the dingo pup".

Alice asked, "what was in that bowl?"

Dr. Ortega said "Well, the special at the dessert cart today was dolce de leche". He dipped his finger in and took a taste. "Yupp! That's what it is. Of course, since all of the other animals are eating strange things, why should the Dingo be any different. But where is the pup?" he asked the girl. "maybe that is why that man was running so fast. He must have taken the pup!

A few blocks away, the masked man got out of the cab and behind him was the Dingo pup! " how did you get in there?" the man said to the pup as he lifted him onto the sidewalk.

Chapter Break?
Jimmy wondered if an Echidna would eat éclairs. Alice went over to the Echidna cage while Jimmy bought eclairs

Then the Echidna made a weird noise and it looked over at an Elephant Seal. It had a pair of shoes with something inside of them. “How strange!” thought Alice “no one was over there!” So they walked over to the Elephant Seal's cage. They went and picked up the note and it said:

// If you want the pup back you will have to get the most famous chef in the world to make him Escargot and then he has to like it. If you fail you will have to do anything he says to do. If you don’t, you’ll be in big trouble. //

Alice and Jimmy wondered what to do. “How are we supposed to do that?” So they asked for a ticket to New York and they got one! They went to New York and