National Zookeepers Week

National Zoo Keeper Week is observed annually during the third full week of July. This week is dedicated to recognizing and celebrating the dedication and hard work of zookeepers. Here's a list of books both fiction and nonfiction about zookeepers.

Updated June 29, 2025
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Fond du Lac Public Library
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The zookeeper's wife
Ackerman, Diane.
Paper Book
The New York Times bestseller soon to be a major motion picture starring Jessica Chastain. A true story in which the keepers of the Warsaw Zoo saved hundreds of people from Nazi hands. When Germany invaded Poland, Stuka bombers devastated Warsaw--and the city...
Father of lions : one man's remarkable quest to save the Mosul Zoo
Callaghan, Louise
Paper Book
Father of Lions is the powerful true story of the evacuation of the Mosul Zoo, featuring Abu Laith the zookeeper, Simba the lion cub, Lula the bear, and countless others, faithfully depicted by acclaimed, award-winning journalist Louise Callaghan in her trade publishing debut. ...
Zoo story : life in the garden of captives
French, Thomas
Paper Book
Welcome to the savage and surprising world of Zoo Story, an unprecedented account of the secret life of a zoo and its inhabitants, both animal and human. Based on six years of research, the book follows a handful of unforgettable characters at Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo: an alpha chimp with...
The song of the ape : understanding the languages of chimpanzees
Halloran, Andrew R.
Paper Book
An absorbing investigation of chimpanzee language and communication by a young primatologist While working as a zookeeper with a group of semi-wild chimpanzees living on an island, primatologist Andrew Halloran witnessed an event that would cause him to become fascinated with how...
Wild on my mind
Kerr, Laurel
Ebook
We bought a zoo
Mee, Benjamin.
Paper Book
A former British newspaper columnist describes how he uprooted his family to the English countryside and purchased a dilapidated zoo, home to more than two hundred exotic animals, which he planned to refurbish and reopen as a family business, a scheme complicated by a lack of money, skeptical staff,...
Fierce kingdom : a novel
Phillips, Gin
Ebook
West with giraffes
Rutledge, Lynda
Paper Book
"Few true friends have I known and two were giraffes . . ."
The elephant of Belfast : a novel
Walsh, S. Kirk
Paper Book
Inspired by true events, this vivid and moving story of a young woman zookeeper and the elephant she's compelled to protect through the German blitz of Belfast during WWll speaks to not only the tragedy of the times, but also to the ongoing sectarian tensions that still exist in Northern Ireland...
The loneliest polar bear : a true story of survival and peril on the edge of a warming world
Williams, Kale
Paper Book
"A moving story of abandonment, love, and survival against the odds."--Dr. Jane Goodall   The heartbreaking and ultimately hopeful story of an abandoned polar bear cub named Nora and the humans working tirelessly to save her and her species, whose uncertain future in the...

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