diff --git a/src/pystatsv1/assets/workbook_starter.zip b/src/pystatsv1/assets/workbook_starter.zip
index 8ffecd6..35845bb 100644
Binary files a/src/pystatsv1/assets/workbook_starter.zip and b/src/pystatsv1/assets/workbook_starter.zip differ
diff --git a/tests/test_workbook_starter_zip_mpl_compat.py b/tests/test_workbook_starter_zip_mpl_compat.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e7cd699
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_workbook_starter_zip_mpl_compat.py
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+"""Regression: workbook starter zip should be Matplotlib 3.9+ friendly.
+
+The workbook starter is what students get when they run:
+
+    pystatsv1 workbook init
+
+Those extracted scripts must avoid Matplotlib's deprecated boxplot keyword
+(`labels` renamed to `tick_labels`) so beginners don't see warnings and
+Matplotlib 3.11 won't break them.
+"""
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import re
+import zipfile
+from pathlib import Path
+
+
+def test_workbook_starter_zip_includes_mpl_compat_helper() -> None:
+    zip_path = Path("src") / "pystatsv1" / "assets" / "workbook_starter.zip"
+    assert zip_path.exists(), f"Missing starter zip at: {zip_path}"
+
+    with zipfile.ZipFile(zip_path, "r") as z:
+        names = set(z.namelist())
+
+    assert "scripts/_mpl_compat.py" in names
+
+
+def test_workbook_starter_zip_has_no_legacy_boxplot_labels_calls() -> None:
+    zip_path = Path("src") / "pystatsv1" / "assets" / "workbook_starter.zip"
+    assert zip_path.exists(), f"Missing starter zip at: {zip_path}"
+
+    # We only check the known scripts that use boxplots today.
+    scripts = [
+        "scripts/intro_stats_01_descriptives.py",
+        "scripts/intro_stats_03_distributions_outliers.py",
+        "scripts/psych_ch19_problem_set.py",
+    ]
+
+    # Detect any Axes.boxplot(... labels=...) usage.
+    legacy_call = re.compile(r"\bboxplot\s*\(.*?\blabels\s*=", re.DOTALL)
+
+    with zipfile.ZipFile(zip_path, "r") as z:
+        for member in scripts:
+            text = z.read(member).decode("utf-8")
+            assert not legacy_call.search(text), f"Found legacy labels= call in {member}"
+            assert "ax_boxplot" in text, f"Expected ax_boxplot wrapper in {member}"