The Zookeeper’s Daughter is such a good book, but how did it come about?
Oliver Eade, award winning Young Adult author explains: ‘Written during the lockdown in collaboration with our 9-year-old Swiss granddaughter, this novel is about a brave little girl who is determined to save endangered animals from being rendered extinct as a result of what humans are doing to the planet. Lara drew the short straw and had to do the illustrations. We dedicated the book to Sir David Attenborough, my life-long hero, and he wrote Lara a lovely thank you letter at 94!’
Frost Magazine was delighted to review this novel, for that’s what it is, rather than an indigestible polemic and Lara is to be congratulated on the illustrations. The Zookeeper’s Daughter explores the world of endangered species using magic to transport Isabelle into the body and environment of whatever animal is featured in each chapter. In this we we ‘see’ her experiences of their imagined life, and highlight the inherent danger.
At the same time it also explores Isabelle’s relationship with her younger brother, Joe, Grumpy Gramps, and her friend. Relationships which grow stronger as their understanding of the Lara’s concerns come home to roost.
But let Oliver Eade tell us a bit more:
In December 2019, my wife and I were enjoying Christmas with our Swiss granddaughters in the Alpine village of Leysin. The younger girl, Lara Isabelle, informed me that she wanted to illustrate one of my children’s books as her elder sister, Olivia, had done two years back. The challenge was set. I was still struggling with my latest young adult novel, The Fire Hills, and welcomed a return to writing for a younger age group. Knowing nothing about the dark menace of Covid-19 coronavirus that had already crossed over from a wild animal to the people of Wuhan in China, our granddaughters’ love of animals came to mind as I wracked my brain for a story to tell. Lara and I sat together and discussed my idea: a half-Swiss, half-Scottish daughter of a zookeeper, fed up with her annoying little brother, is devastated to learn she will not be visiting her Swiss ‘mamie’ (granny) that summer. Her wish to escape the boredom of spending summer with little Joe and their grumpy Scottish grandfather, and to be free like all those lucky wild animals, comes true when a magical spider emerges from a cuddly white chamois her grandmother gave her, and weaves a golden web that can transport her into the worlds of wild animals in a very special book from an old zoo employee who is ill in hospital. Soon after I began writing Lara’s book, the threat of a serious pandemic changed from just another news item to a dreaded reality that now dominates all our lives. I completed the first draft during the early stages of lockdown two months later. Never had I finished a novel within such a short space of time …’
Courtesy of Isabelle
The review team enjoyed The Zookeeper’s Daughter enormously, in part because of the vibrancy of the illustrations (bravo Lara) and of course, because of the certain hand of Oliver Eade guiding and crafting the structure, and scenes, not to mention his experience as a skilled writer.
So often these novels become worthy and bang on relentlessly about the particular cause they are highlighting, but The Zookeper’s Daughter is multi faceted, cleverly imagined, thought provoking and – so importantly – great fun.
Bravo both of you. A triumph. Vibrant and enchanting.
The Zookeeper’s Daughter by Oliver Eade and Lara Isabelle Ruiz Eade is available at Amazon.co.uk in eBook or pb.
Annie Clarke is the author of the Home Front Girls series. 
