Professor Puddle and the Upside-Down Zoo
An adult otter professor visits a zoo where the animals have decided the visitors should try their enclosures. Fixing the chaos means asking what a good home feels like from the other side of the gate.
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How it begins
Professor Puddle arrived at the zoo carrying a notebook, a sandwich, and a very important umbrella.
The umbrella had seventeen pockets. Sixteen held pencils. The last held an emergency biscuit.
At the gate, a zebra sold him a ticket.
“Map?” she asked.
“Yes, please.”
“Old map or new map?”
“Which one is correct?”
“We haven't decided.”
Professor Puddle bought both.
Inside the zoo, a family sat in the otter enclosure.
The father was balanced on a rock. The mother held a wet handbag. A small boy slid cheerfully into the pool.
“Excellent water,” the boy said.
“Terrible seating,” said the father.
Professor Puddle checked his old map.
OTTERS.
He checked the new one.
VISITORS TRYING OTTER THINGS.
“An experiment,” said the zebra, appearing beside him.
“Whose?”
“Ours. I'm Zelda. Temporary director.”
“Where is the permanent director?”
“In the giraffe house. He wanted a better view.”
A penguin hurried past wearing a ticket-office cap. Behind it came three flamingos carrying a café table.
Professor Puddle opened his notebook.
Before he could write, a giraffe put her head through the café window.
“The sandwiches are very low.”
“They usually are,” Puddle said.
“I would like one at a reasonable height.”
Zelda nodded. “Useful feedback.”
From the otter enclosure came a splash.
The father had fallen off his rock.
Professor Puddle closed the notebook and offered his umbrella handle. The man climbed out, dripping.
“There should be a dry place to sit.”
“Otters like water,” Puddle explained.
“I'm beginning to suspect,” said the father, “that I am not an otter.”
Puddle looked around.
The penguins were queuing at their own ticket window. The giraffe was attempting to eat a sandwich through a chimney. The director was shouting that his view was mostly neck.
He took a pencil from his umbrella.
“This,” he told Zelda, “may require a third map.”
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Outline and characters
Develop this idea
Shape this as a short illustrated chapter book for roughly ages six to nine, with one clear problem per chapter and room for visual jokes. The adult animal leads can model curiosity without explaining a moral after every event. Keep the enclosure exchange safe and fantastical. Give the animals different preferences rather than one universal idea of comfort, and let Puddle be usefully wrong before helping.
- Puddle finds the visitors inside the enclosures.
- Zelda announces a trial exchange of homes.
- The penguins inspect the ticket office.
- A giraffe struggles with the café roof.
- Puddle tries an enclosure designed by a committee.
- The animals discover visitors have different needs.
- A storm disrupts the elaborate exchange.
- Everyone contributes knowledge from the wrong side.
- New habitats include genuine choices and exits.
- The zoo reopens with a different kind of welcome.
Characters
- Professor Puddle, 47. Adult otter and visiting professor
- Zelda Stripe, 39. Adult zebra and temporary zoo director
Series possibilities
- Professor Puddle visits other places where a sensible question produces a wonderfully impractical experiment.
