General Questions
Where do the Zoophas live?
The Zoophas live in Zoophaland, of course. And the main characters live with their best friend, who is also their upper or lowercase buddy. For example, Abe and Alice share an attic apartment on the avenue. And Babette and Bernard live in a brown bungalow by a bridge. We're working on a Zoophaland book and Zoophaland map to show it all to you.
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What do the Zoophas do all day?
The Zoophas tend to like, do and hang out around things that begin with their favorite letter (which is the one that their name starts with and the one that they look like). But they also enjoy spelling, so they also spend some time working at the Zoopha Studio spelling names for kids and working on a Zoopha dictionary and Zoopha stories. Someday there will be a books about that too.
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How did the Zoophas decide what type of animal represents each letter?
Way back when they started the studio, Matumbi, the Zoopha Studio manager, held auditions throughout Zoophaland. He and the studio heads tried to find animals that could look like a letter without much effort or complicated posing. Each animal also had to be good at making all of the sounds that their letter makes.
You also may have noticed that each Zoopha's name begins with the letter that they look like. In Zoophaland this happens a lot. Zoopha parents name their kids based on what letter they look like -- which is usually the letter their parents look like. So many Zoopha families have names that all start with the same letter.
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The lowercase b is a turtle -- why didn't they pick an animal that starts with
the letter b?
Well, like we said in the question above, the Zoopha Studio was looking for animals that looked like the letter naturally. In their opinion, turtles with long necks made the best looking lowercase b's and Bernard won the audition. By choosing animals based on their natural shapes, the studio wanted people to just see the animal at first and not think that it's posing. But once people know that each animal is also shaped like a letter, and especially when the Zoopha characters are lined up to spell a word, they definitely want you to see the animal as a letter too.
If you're still confused, this may help. Someone once asked what letter humans would be if they were in the Zoophabet. The Zoopha Studio manager said he thought they'd probably make good capital I's or lowercase l's because just standing with their hands at their sides is a comfortable pose for them. Having a human make themselves into an H or h shape just because human begins with h didn't make sense to him because making an H or h is pretty hard for a human and it wouldn't be comfortable or look natural.
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What kind of animal is each letter? I can guess, but want to know for sure.
You should love them for who they are, not what they are, but here's a list of each character and what kind of animal it is.
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I was looking through the custom names -- are there girl and boy versions of each letter?
Yes, if you flip through the name portfolio you'll notice that there are male and female versions of each letter. To tell them apart, look at their eyelashes. The males have single or no eyelashes and the girls have double eyelashes. Their colors are sometimes different too. And in one case, the capital T, the male and female character is even more different. Compare the T in Thomas to the T in Tiffany.
The Zoopha Studio makes sure to start each boy name with an uppercase male character and each girl name with an uppercase female character. The rest of the name's characters will also skew male or skew female depending on whether it's a boy's name or a girl's name.
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When I look through the name portfolio I see a variety of colors for each letter. How do colors get chosen for a custom name?
Yes, there are more Zoophas than you see in the characters section. The studio has a whole cast of additional colors for each letter so that they can make sure each custom name gets a full range of colors. And the Zoophas also try to spread out their colors nicely within a name. For example, they never have two characters of the same color next to each other.
And then to give the color in each custom name a masculine or feminine feel, the pink and purple Zoopha characters are used only in girls' names and the red Zoopha characters are used only in boys' names.
Here's a good way to see the differences between a masculine color palette and a feminine one -- compare these sample names: Alexis (boy) | Alexis (girl) | Jordan (boy) | Jordan (girl)
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Questions about the Zoophabet book
What’s an emu?
An emu is a bird that's almost as big as an ostrich. It can't fly but it can run very fast. And most importantly to Eduardo, the females lay excellent tasting, enormous eggs. An emu egg is so big that it's like eating 10 chicken eggs. But because emus are big birds, it's probably no surprise that their eggs are big. Here's a fact that will probably surprise you though: emu egg shells are dark green! It's only green on the outside though -- the inside has a normal white and yolk. The emu egg shown in the book is already peeled and ready to for Eduardo eat -- Eduardo thinks that's extra excellent!
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Are farkleberries fake?
No, farkleberries really exist. They are small dark-colored berries kind of like blueberries but not quite as sweet. They grow on shrubs and small trees in the southeastern United States. Birds really like them.
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How can I make a farkleberry fizz for myself?
Flo is keeping her recipe a secret. But she did say that she uses blueberries when farkleberries aren't in season. That's all we know.
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Does Holly really mean to say "hoooo doggy" and not "hot doggy"?
Yes, she's a little bit of a hillbilly and that's how they talk. "Hoooo doggy" means she's excited.
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Is there really such a thing as inchworm ice cream?
We've only ever seen it in Zoophaland. Izzy loves inchworms and anything icy, so it's a perfect combination for her.
If you want to make some that humans might like, we'd suggest substituting gummy worms. Mmmm.
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I've never heard the expression “juicy, jelly, joy, joy”. Why does Jasper say that?
That is Jasper’s version of "happy, happy, joy, joy" a phrase made popular by some very funny cartoon characters named Ren and Stimpy. And juicy, jelly, joy, joy works perfectly for jellybeans. They are juicy. They have jelly. And they bring him joy, joy.
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I think marshmallow monsters are cool. How do you make them?
It's not hard. Mashaka can do it and she's a monkey. Look at the picture -- you'll need marshmallows, toothpicks and something to make faces (try chocolate sauce that you can paint on with your toothpick). Then make a few monsters and munch away. Mwah, ha, ha.
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I'd like nautical noodles if they weren't seaweed. Any ideas?
Try using spinach spaghetti -- it's green and will look like Nicolai's nautical noodles.
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I tried to poke a hole in my pepperoni pizza like Pemberton did and it didn't work very well. How does he do it?
All we can say is that he's a powerful poker and he's had lots of practice. If you can't poke like that, maybe just pop off a pepperoni.
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Quackers look a lot like Pepperidge Farm Goldfish -- I bet they're good. Where can I get some?
They are good. And as you know, Queenie thinks they're quite quelcious. But right now they’re only available in Zoophaland. Sorry if this answer is disappointing. You'll just have to eat Goldfish and pretend they are ducks.
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I don't think “quelicious” is a word. Why does Queenie say that?
Well, all we can say is that Queenie is quite quirky. She likes to use “qu” as much as she can -- even if she has to make up words to do it.
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Is ugli fruit real?
Yes, ugli fruit is real. It's also sometimes called uniq fruit. It comes from Jamaica and is a cross between a tangerine and a grapefruit. It's bumpy and ugly on the outside, but it's nice and sweet on the inside. We agree with Ulrich and think they're ummy. If you ever see one in the grocery store, you should buy one and try it.
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Why does Velma need va-va-va voom for her vaults? By the way, what’s a vault?
A vault is a big jump and because Velma is a grasshopper, she's already a good jumper. The vitamins in vegetables just make her stronger and then she can jump even higher.
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Earwax is pretty gross. And it doesn't begin with x. Why is it even in the book?
Well, what can we say except that Xerxes really likes it. And it ends with an x, and he likes x’s. If you ever meet Xerxes, you might hear a /z/ sound near your ear while he buzzes near you smelling to see if you have any extra earwax for him to extract. And if you hear him eating it, he makes a /ks/, /ks/, /ks/ sound as he sucks it up.
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