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. ...
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...
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...
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,...
The zookeepers' war : an incredible true story from the Cold War
Mohnhaupt, Jan
Paper Book
The unbelievable true story of the Cold War's strangest proxy war, fought between the zoos on either side of the Berlin Wall. "The liveliness of Mohnhaupt's storytelling and the wonderful eccentricity of his subject matter make this book well worth a read." --Star...
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...
Museums, zoos & botanical gardens of Wisconsin : a comprehensive guidebook : an illustrated guidebook to collections of history, culture, art, zoology, natural history, botany, and the environment, in the Badger State
Rajer, Anton.
Paper Book
This fascinating, well-researched guidebook describes for the first time in print the full gamut of museums, zoos, and botanical gardens in Wisconsin and the broad spectrum of cultural artifacts and natural history collections in the state. It invites everyone to enjoy a rich variety of sites,...
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 panda of death
Webb, Betty
Paper Book
The next book in A Gunn Zoo Mystery Series finds zookeeper Theodora "Teddy" Bentley taking on dangerous secrets, kooky animals, and new family members California zookeeper Theodora Bentley is now happily married to Sheriff Joe Rejas. The Gunn Zoo is celebrating the arrival of Poonya, an...
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.
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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