ZOU

As a surprise for Mum on Mother's Day, Zou and Grandma bake a cake. Dad returns from work and starts to eat it, so Zou has to quickly bake another. But this time, Grandma isn't on hand to help. What a mess!! But Mum helps to make a third cake and ALL the mums in the house get to celebrate.

Zou and Elzee borrow a tent from Grandpa and set it up in the garden. Perhaps Grandpa shouldn't have mentioned the wild animals he met when he went camping in darkest Africa; Zou's and Elzee's imaginations run riot when they think they hear wild animals outside the tent.

When Zou is asked to stop making so much noise and to tidy his room, he decides there are a few too many rules in his house. He's going to leave home. But after he says goodbye to everyone - and gets a little help from Grandpa, he wonders whether he's made the right decision.

When Zou decides he wants to be King of the Household, Grandpa helps him to source the various items he needs for his regalia. But he soon finds that being King is not all it's cracked up to be. He has to make decisions and rules and regulations. The responsibility proves a little daunting and in the end, he decides it might be better if Mum and Dad were king and queen.

Zou decides he wants to be a postman and, at first is most helpful delivering items for members of his family. But when he gets a little over-confident, the various packages are delivered to the wrong addresses. A little help from Grandpa is needed.

Zou has been watching his favourite (cartoon) detective show on T.V. and decides he's going to be a detective. His first case is the Mystery of Nanna's Missing False Teeth. After a day's detecting, Zou is no nearer to solving it than he was at the beginning - though he has found various other lost items.

Zou's Mum asks Zou to clear out some toys he has grown out of. Zou finds his old teething ring, which, rather than throw away, Mum seems keen to keep as a memento of Zou's babyhood. Zou has his work cut out hiding it from various visitors; Zinnia, Elzee, etc. But in the end, it is used as an example of how much Zou has grown up.

Zou wants to be a mountaineer when he grows up. He and Grandpa find some makeshift climbing equipment in the garage and climb to the top of the house - via the staircase.

Zou is working on a project at school and decides he needs some photographs to illustrate it. He borrows the family camera, promising to take very good care of it. But when it goes missing, Zou has to make up all manner of excuses to cover his tracks. He comes clean in the end - once the camera is discovered safe and sound.

Zou decides he wants a pet - and ends up with an army of ants in this respect. The ants cause more than a little trouble in the house when they get loose, but Poc is on hand to deal with them. Zou realises he already has a wonderful, faithful pet in Poc.

Zou receives a drum for his birthday - and drives everyone to distraction by playing on it molto fortissimo. But Nanna is on hand to show him that you don't need to beat seven bells out of a drum to make pleasant music.

Zou has been asked to look after the class sunflower during the school holidays. But due to one thing and another, Zou neglects "Goldie" during the day. When eventually he returns to the garden to check up on the sunflower, he finds her head is drooping. Oh no! But Dad explains that all sunflowers droop at night. She'll be fine in the morning.

Zou and Elzee decide to go on a trip to the moon, but when their spaceship (well, cardboard box covered in tin foil) loses one of its 'engines' they land on a mysterious planet. They gather alien rocks, draw pictures of intergalactic plants and do their best to befriend the alien species that live there.

There's to be an art competition in the park and Zou wants to enter. He paints a picture, only to find that Zinnia has done a painting too. He makes a sculpture - Zak's done that and Zou really wants to produce something different. Aha! He'll make a mosaic. But Elzee has used that technique. In the end, he uses all three styles and makes a very successful submission indeed.

Zou is intrigued with Grandpa's newspaper, decides that he'd like to be a reporter on his own newspaper - the Daily Zou. At first he doesn't have too much luck finding any notable stories until Nanna's stair-lift gets stuck again, setting off a chain reaction of mega-slapstick proportions. What a story!

Poc is not looking well. Zou says he needs to go to the doctor. Poc, being more than unwilling to subject himself to the ministrations of the health service, hides. And when Zou discovers that he also has an appointment with the doctor (for an immunisation jab), he too goes into hiding - in the same place as Poc.

Zou and his Dad are doing some gardening when birds eat the vegetable seeds they were planting. Grandpa suggests making a scarecrow - which actually turns out to be pretty effective, scaring several members of Zou's family.

Zou, Elzee (and Zinnia) were due to go to play in the park - but the weather precludes this excursion. So Grandpa suggests a toffee-apple hunt. The ingredients for toffee apples will be hidden around the house and will be clued by ogre's footprints. The zebra foals hunt excitedly and successfully; at its end, they are rewarded with some delicious Hallowe'en toffee apples.

Zou and Elzee are doing some painting with Grandpa in the kitchen. When Elzee spots a rainbow out of the window and Grandpa explains that a rainbow usually has a crock of gold at the end, Zou and Elzee want to go and find it. The rainbow, however, soon fades and the youngsters go home to make their own rainbow. And Grandpa arranges for there to be some "treasure" at the end.

Zou discovers what it means to make a promise and decides to make promises to everybody who asks him, including helping Dad wash the car; playing with Elzee in her garden; bringing the shopping in with Mum; taking Nanna her warm milk; and helping Grandma sort her collection of cake tins. Of course, he has promised too much to too many people and time runs out.

When Zou discovers Grandpa's old walkie talkie while they are clearing out the garage together, Grandpa says that Zou can play with it. Trouble is, there's no-one around to play with - until he is asked to run several errands for Nanna. He gives her the other half of the walkie talkie, which makes his errand running so much more easy.

Zou is making a cherry pie - with some help from Grandma. It's to be entered in a bake-off competition at Mr. Zoey's. Grandpa is on hand to lend his help too, but he becomes a little distracted when he finds he has lost the key to his garage. In spite of their best efforts, the key remains lost - until it turns up in Zou's delicious cherry pie.

Zou wants to be a superhero, so dins a cape and finds a few tools to help him in his self-imposed task. But his attempts at being a super-hero are not too successful - until Nanna gets stuck on her stair-lift in a power cut in the middle of the night. Super-Zou to the rescue!

Zinnia is at Zou's house while Uncle Zavier and Aunt Zelda attend a swanky do in town. Zinnia says she's going to win a dance competition in the park later in the week. During a bit of argumentative give and take between the two, Zou finds that he has inadvertently agreed to take part in the competition too. But it all turns out for the best when he teams up with Elzee.

Zou has been to see a conjuror/illusionist at a local theatre - he decides he'd like to be a magician too. But when a magic prop (a disappearing cabinet) appears to malfunction and his "glamorous" assistant, Poc, goes missing for real, Zou wonders if he really is magic.