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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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. ...
Sweet wild of mine
Kerr, Laurel
Paper Book
Love runs wild at the Sagebrush Flats Zoo... In a bid to revitalize his career, bestselling author Magnus Gray has come to Sagebrush Flats to write about the local zoo's latest rescue-an orphaned baby polar bear. But Magnus dreads the drama of small towns and is bullishly determined to...
Wild on my mind
Kerr, Laurel
Paper Book
Love runs wild at the Sagebrush Flats Zoo, where a motley crew of big-hearted animals helps the most unlikely couples find love. When Katie Underwood discovers a litter of newborn cougar cubs, the last person she expects to come to the rescue is her former crush-and high...
Fierce kingdom : a novel
Phillips, Gin
Paper Book
One of the New York Times Book Review's Best Crime Novels of 2017 "Warning: you'll finish this in one sitting." --TheSkimm   "Expertly made thriller . . . clever and irresistible." --The New York Times An electrifying novel about the primal and...
West with giraffes : a novel
Rutledge, Lynda
Paper Book
An emotional, rousing novel inspired by the incredible true story of two giraffes who made headlines and won the hearts of Depression-era America. "Few true friends have I known and two were giraffes..." Woodrow Wilson Nickel, age 105, feels his life ebbing away. But...
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...
Betty & friends : my life at the zoo
White, Betty
Paper Book
America's sweetheart, impassioned lifelong animal welfare advocate, and New York Times-bestselling author Betty White offers intimate and funny stories about her animal friends at the zoo, enhanced by gorgeous four-color photographs.

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