Zoé Kézako

Having a baby brother can be such an ordeal! Zoe can’t just sit down and enjoy a nice game of ‘Fangosaurus 3’! Instead, she has to look after ‘the brat’ while Mom and Dad decorate his room! The babysitting session turns into pure purgatory as Titi chews on pens, pulls the head off Zoe’s Super Zumo doll, screams and bawls his eyes out, and simply refuses to stay still! Zoe is at the end of her tether. Out of ideas for getting shot of Titi, she decides to scare him into submission by telling him stories about ‘brother-eating Fangosauruses’! But Zoe gets so caught up in her own game that she actually starts to believe she’s seeing Fangosaurus shadows creeping along the cellar walls!… AAAAH!!!

Oh dear, oh dear! Not only has Zoe just busted Mariponpon’s really cool game console, but MP’s hassling Zoe big time for her to give it back! How can she explain? Or how can she get Mariponpon to forget all about the console? Or – better still – how can she work it so Mariponpon thinks she broke the console, instead?! AHA! Now that’s an idea! Zoe thinks up a crafty masterplan: she perches the console right on the edge of the dresser, then gets MP to fetch it… CRASH BANG! Everything goes to plan. Except that Mariponpon is reduced to tears as she contemplates her totally wrecked, favorite game. For anybody else, now would be the perfect time to admit the truth. But for Zoe, nothing could be more painful...

Wo!! Would you look at her?! “Oooo… My name’s Lola. I’m a total Top Model and all the guys stare at me while I play cool, writing all kinds of secrets in my ever-so-trendy notebook… Pff!” Determined to regain her former status of ‘Local Flavor of the Month’, Zoe puts all her craftiness to work to knock her annoying rival off her Park Pedestal! She even devises a wicked plan designed to make Lola look a fool in front of the boys. But there’s just one detail Zoe seems to have overlooked : what if Lola were, after all, a really nice person?...

What a nightmare! For weeks now, Zoe has been hassling her parents to buy her a really cool game named ‘Dummy-Crazed Wacko!’ But when she does, finally, get it, she realizes it’s totally has-been! It seems THE game to have these days is ‘Splat the Gnat!’ Just so happens Super Duper has just received that very game and is insisting on parading around the park, showing it off to everyone! Zoe is well peeved : she embarks on a whole series of game swaps, with all her park friends, in an effort to obtain the one and only game that Super Duper is willing to exchange ‘Splat the Gnat!’ for! But Zoe is so unpleasant with everyone in the process that no-one’s going to want to play ’Splat the Gnat!’ with her, even when she does get it.

Something’s amiss at the park: Mariponpon seems to be hiding something, Super Duper stops talking as soon as Zoe comes on the scene, and Melina goes and joins the other kids for a clandestine meeting behind a bush. They’re all acting as if Zoe had the cooties, or something! Appalled by their behavior and terrified at the idea of being left out in the cold, Zoe goes out of her way to find out what’s going on. But maybe she should have kept herself to herself: when she finds out a top secret party is being thrown round at Mariponpon’s house, she cries treason! But sometimes, things are simply not what they seem…

Zoe has more than had her fill of steamed French beans, raw carrots and beets! She does everything she can to get out of eating such food but Mom is wise to her tricks. So Zoe lets rip: “I’ve had enough! Why can’t I eat like Mariponpon? She can eat whatever she wants!” However, when Zoe actually finds herself round at Mariponpon’s house, her oversized appetite takes its toll, and she winds up with a copious helping of heartburn!

Zoe recalls the first time her babysitter ‘Thingee’ turned up at the house. She also remembers how she reacted: “Who’s that majorly noisy, beanpole girl, already?!”, ‘Isidora de Senforbon de la Ribodière is her name”, “Yeah, okay: I’ll just call her Thingee…” Bent on discouraging this intruder from accepting the job, Zoe gives Thingee a very hard time. But despite Zoe’s dissuasive behavior, Thingee remains pleasant and professional. She even covers for Zoe in front of her parents! Could this be the start of a big friendship?...

Oh, no!! Here comes Aunty Kissy! There’s NO WAY Zoe can let her friends see her getting all molly-coddled and slobbered over by her doting Aunty, like she was some kind of four-year-old or something! It’s time to push the ‘Red Alert Button’! Zoe makes everyone think Aunty Kissy’s really a crazy woman from down the road who’s trying to get inside the house: whatever happens, she MUST NOT be allowed in! The plan is a success. But when the kids find themselves accidentally imprisoned inside a pitch-black closet, they realize that an Aunty Kissy can come in handy after all!

Oh, gross!! These shoes are so ‘overnew’! They make a squidgy noise every time you take a step and they’re so unsubtle, you can spot them ten miles away! Totally ill at ease with her new look, Zoe goes out of her way to make her feet as inconspicuous as possible. She even lures Jeny into swapping her shoes for Zoe’s. But when Jeny starts getting all the attention on account of her flashy new footwear, Zoe is true to her selfish self, bent on recovering the coveted fashion items, come what may!

What could be worse than being made to play with your parents’ friends’ son?! Not only does Zoe have better things to do with her evening, but she also finds this Noe guy TOTALLY GROSS! Strangely enough, Mariponpon seems to think he’s got a lot in common with Zoe personality wise. She even thinks they look alike! Underhand maneuvers and general uncivil behavior ensue until, finally, Zoe and Noe realize they are, in fact, dead ringers in every way! Run for your life, Mariponpon!

Intent on bragging about how late they go to bed each night, Zoe and Melina contend with each other, to see who can stay awake the longest. They get back up out of bed after Zoe’s parents have gone to sleep and make fun of each other’s signs of tiredness. Despite being obviously exhausted, they go out of their way not to lose face. The roller skate race, which is to be taking place the next morning, at the local park, is going to prove tougher than expected…

“Who’s this guy Thingee’s been hanging out with?! Don’t tell me she’s got a boyfriend! What about me?!” Zoe is extremely peeved at the fact that Thingee has been letting herself get distracted, instead of looking after Zoe 24 HOURS A DAY! That ‘Boyfriend Thingamabob’ must be gotten rid of, at once! Zoe figures the best way to go about it is to “ewe him out” with regard to Thingee. S he stops at nothing, trying to convince the boy that her babysitter’s crazy, that she’s this and that, or the other… But when the pesky suitor won’t buy it, Zoe starts to realize he’s maybe not the easiest person in the world to pull a fast one on…

Awesome! Zoe’s parents have, at last, decided to start giving her pocket money! In a state of “overexcitement”, Zoe runs round to Mister Sweets’ candy store, where she promptly works up an ASTRONOMICAL bill! There’s no way she can honor her debt and it’s too late to return the goods… for the simple reason that she’s already gobbled them all up! So, Zoe accepts Mister Sweets’ proposition, which consists of helping him behind the counter, to repay her debt in kind. But it’s trickier than she expected and, before long, Zoe wreaks “sweet havoc” in the store…

Thingee is on the verge of fulfilling her dream of a lifetime: a leading part in a big movie. But Zoe is finding it very hard to accept the fact that her one-and-only babysitter is prepared to leave her in the lurch, for the sake of stardom! Zoe goes out of her way to put a major spanner in the works, to try to get Thingee to stay behind…

Someone has started a rumor that Zoe and Valentine recently kissed each other… on the lips! Completely mad about the whole thing, Zoe goes out of her way to prove to everyone that she hates Valentine! But instead of clearing the rumor, she just winds up making it worse! To try and compensate, she starts inventing all kinds of gossip about everyone else. Before long, contention reigns big time in the schoolyard, and Valentine and Zoe find themselves having to join forces, to calm everybody down!

Zoe insists she is in serious need of glasses! However, considering the whole “poor eyesight” thing is totally fake, things start to get out of hand when she lands herself a pair of “pebble spectacles”! Not only does she not look in the least bit like Pamela Solstoi-Toystoi, the ‘Super Spy’, but the more she keeps up the pretense, the more she gets herself into the most mind-boggling of situations!

Zoe is the talk of the town when she tells everyone she’s real good friends with Jackie, the real cute star of TV series ‘Jackie from the Block’. But then it turns out one of the episodes is going to be shot in the local park and that all the school kids are invited to go and watch! Wow, way to go! The kids are counting on Zoe to get them an up-close view of Jackie, with a view to obtaining autographs, kisses, signed photos, and so on and so forth. This is very bad news for Zoe who, in truth, has never met Jackie in her whole lying life! Not having the guts to admit she made the whole thing up, Zoe goes out of her way to avoid the event, committing tons of mischief to try to get her folks to ground her! But it doesn’t work, and, on D-Day, she finds herself down at the park, with all her friends… and Jackie, in the mood for signing autographs! Gulp!

Zoe is literally exasperated by Mariponpon, who spends her whole time scribbling down heaps of top secret thingamajigs in her new personal diary! Zoe employs any number of stratagems to try and get a sneak preview of Mariponpon’s writings. She is so bratty toward her friend that she almost destroys their relationship!

Mariponpon, Matthew and Pauline turn up at Zoe’s house with various games to play, raring to go. But Zoe insists on them playing the funky new adventure game she’s invented for the occasion. After a while, the other three kids are finding it pretty boring, and when Zoe wants to drag them off to the local park, to carry on her game, they can bear it no longer: it’s getting late and they haven’t even started their games yet! But then Matthew gets an idea: if adventure’s what Zoe wants, then that’s exactly what she’ll get…!

Zoe is majorly naughty, right bang on ‘Treasure Hunt Day’! One thing’s for sure: she’s going to be banned from the fun as a punishment. So, when Mariponpon gets wrongly accused for the transgression, Zoe refrains from offering up the truth on the grounds that Mariponpon never gets punished for anything anyway! Only, this time – for the first time ever – Misses Glutton decides to reprimand her daughter! Confronted with her ‘bestest friend’s’ despair at being unjustly deprived of ‘Treasure Hunt’ fun, Zoe is filled with remorse. But will this incite her to set the record straight and tell the truth?…

Zoe has been given the leading role in the class’ rendition of ‘Cinderella’, directed by their teacher Miss Lardon. She is supposed to learn her lines for the rehearsal. But she has soooo many other humongously important things to do that she just puts it off and off, and off… Until the morning of the rehearsal, when…

All is “hunky dory doo” in Zoe Kezako land… until one morning, when a new girl turns up in class and starts stealing the limelight, right off Zoe’s stage! Everyone is just so fazed by this Noemi girl, just because she can do a whole heap of awesome, acrobaty-clowny things! Zoe tries to outdo the niggling newcomer by challenging her to her favorite pursuits. But Zoe is seriously vanquished: there’s no beating Noemi – she’s just such a champion! It’s not surprising really, as Zoe later finds out, because Noemi is none other than the daughter of Master Moglioni, of ‘Moglioni Circus’ fame!

When Zoe sees the boys playing a cool, alien-hunting game in the park, she desperately wants to join in too. But their viewpoint is clear: “You can’t play with us ‘cos you’re a girl!” -“Hey! Just ‘cos I’m a girl doesn’t mean I have to play dumb, dorky games!” Zoe gets ready to retaliate: she’s determined to prove to the boys that she’s got what it takes to become a Prize Plutonian Hunter, just like them!

By some amazing twist of fate, Zoe beats Super Duper in an arm-wrestling match. She immediately deduces that she’s blessed with Super Powers – just like Mighty Man, her favorite comic strip hero. But things go awry when Mariponpon calls on her to save guinea-pig Biscuit, who’s got herself ‘wedged’ underneath the refrigerator! Zoe’s so-called Super Powers turn out to be totally absent! She tries everything in her ‘power’ to get out of this humiliating situation, but her friends bring her back down to Earth with a thump, opening her eyes to the inescapable truth: she is, after all, a normal girl – just like everyone else! But Zoe soon comes to terms with the fact that being a normal girl is not quite as bad as it seems, after all…

Zoe is intent on proving to Noe that she’s an item in her neighborhood. But, as luck would have it, that particular day, her friends have only got eyes for Thingee! The babysitter can’t do anything wrong: she’s sooo cool and sooo much fun, and so on and so forth… Piqued, Zoe starts imitating Thingee’s behavior in every way – her writing, her body language, her way of speaking, everything – in an effort to be as popular as her. But admiration is not gained by striving to be somebody else, as Zoe’s friends’ reactions clearly show…

Get this: Zoe realizes she might just maybe have a chance of getting an up-close view of the latest, most recent rocket, bound for the Moon courtesy of Melina’s cousin! With a bit of luck, that is… But who’s to say luck can’t be nudged in the right direction?! So Zoe starts touching wood, and avoiding the joints in the pavings on the sidewalk, and repeating the same words 500 times before going to sleep, and crossing fingers and feet, and tongue… which does not make life easy! But hang on a second: couldn’t she just go and ask Melina’s cousin if it’s possible? That’s got to be easier than all this superstition caper!