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The Night Zookeeper #1
Night Zookeeper The Giraffes of Whispering Wood
It's late at night when Will Rivers slips into the zoo to add the finishing touches to his mural. As he adds the last lick of paint a portal opens and he's transported to the world of the Night Zoo, where an incredible adventure awaits. From the creators of nightzookeeper.com, a website that makes learning fun and inspires creativity.
100 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 1, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 2, 2024
Great early reader, my favorite part is the creative writing prompts and ideas for kids to make their own stories as Night Zookeepers. My oldest is a little young for creative writing, but we did do some imaginative drawing associated with the prompts. Will continue to read the series and recommend to other homeschool parents 😊
July 23, 2023
"All you have to do is believe..."
[ © Wonky Star Ltd.]
Joshua Davidson`s Night Zookeeper - The Giraffes of Whispering Wood is for everyone, who has a sense of adventure and an imaginative mind.
During a school trip to the zoo, Will unknowingly paints and creates a mystical portal that leads to the Night Zoo, and thus begins the wonderful adventures of the Night Zookeeper. After being handed over a magical orb and a powerful torch, Will is entrusted with the responsibility of saving the zoo animals from the evil robotic Voids. With the help of his friend Riya and Sam, the Spying Giraffe, Will goes on a bold and risky trip to help save the Night Zoo.
We get to meet some interesting characters:
Will Rivers
Grandma Rivers
Riya
Sam, the Spying Giraffe
The story is well narrated, engaging, fun, and easy to read.
It is, sometimes, alright to go beyond the rules - and, surely, elephants need not be always grey, they can also be purple!
"Well, what are we waiting for?" It`s time for an exciting adventure!
Thank you, Wonky Star for the copy of this book.
[ © Wonky Star Ltd.]
Joshua Davidson`s Night Zookeeper - The Giraffes of Whispering Wood is for everyone, who has a sense of adventure and an imaginative mind.
During a school trip to the zoo, Will unknowingly paints and creates a mystical portal that leads to the Night Zoo, and thus begins the wonderful adventures of the Night Zookeeper. After being handed over a magical orb and a powerful torch, Will is entrusted with the responsibility of saving the zoo animals from the evil robotic Voids. With the help of his friend Riya and Sam, the Spying Giraffe, Will goes on a bold and risky trip to help save the Night Zoo.
We get to meet some interesting characters:
Will Rivers
Grandma Rivers
Riya
Sam, the Spying Giraffe
The story is well narrated, engaging, fun, and easy to read.
It is, sometimes, alright to go beyond the rules - and, surely, elephants need not be always grey, they can also be purple!
"Well, what are we waiting for?" It`s time for an exciting adventure!
Thank you, Wonky Star for the copy of this book.
February 5, 2026
“Night Zookeeper:The Giraffes of Whispering Wood” is an amazing children’s chapter book by Joshua Davidson. Will has a great imagination but is told by his friend, Isaac and his teacher to fix his elephant picture that he painted. They can’t see the creativity of his purple elephant with the infinity symbol. Grandmas understands because she has an incredible imagination. Do you think Will is going to stop being creative or become the Night Zookeeper? There is a great adventure ahead. I highly recommend this book and Sam is an amazing character. I highly recommend this children’s chapter book to stretch imagination. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
February 28, 2022
The Night Zookeeper series goes along with the creative writing app for kids. The app is fantastic; the books are interesting backstory. There's some cool mystique that goes along with the lore, and I hope future books cover some of the other characters (Riya, the Grandmother, etc).
Not quite on par with the Minecraft series of books in terms of content, storylines, characters, but since this is an arc that doesn't draw on existing worlds and has multiple books in the same span, it needs a bit of room to grow on its own without doing any heavy-handed character or worldbuilding upfront.
Not quite on par with the Minecraft series of books in terms of content, storylines, characters, but since this is an arc that doesn't draw on existing worlds and has multiple books in the same span, it needs a bit of room to grow on its own without doing any heavy-handed character or worldbuilding upfront.
June 22, 2023
Very clever. I love the ideas behind it.
January 9, 2018
The best bit of this book is the bit immediately after the story. But first the story…
The story tells the tale of Will Rivers. At the beginning he is taking part in a “school project, painting a giant mural on the wall of the local zoo”. His contribution is a purple elephant with a yellow “eternity symbol” on its forehead matching a tattoo his Grandma, who lives with them, has.
Will’s artistic efforts displease the teacher. He is forced to paint the elephant a more conventional grey. However, out of hours, Will decides he was right all along and returns to paint it back to purple complete with the eternity symbol.
On the night of his tenth birthday he is drawn back to the zoo wall and something magical happens. On the mural behind his elephant a gate opens. He enters and is taken into the land of the Night Zoo where he becomes the Night Zookeeper.
Upon entering the Night Zoo he finds himself in the Whispering Woods, where the newspaper trees write headlines about what is happening and pass them on to each other. He also meets a talking, spying giraffe called Sam who tells him that the giraffes are in danger from Voids, robots that look like giant spiders, and that he is the Night Zookeeper, the one who will save them all.
Then once Will has (spoiler alert) saved the giraffes, and the story ends with him departing to save other animals in need in another part of the zoo, this book being the first in the series with more to follow, there is a really interesting section to the book which encourages creativity and lets young people get their imaginations going. You’re asked to create your own magical animals and locations. There are few examples sent in by fans and prompts to help. There is a website, nightzookeeper.com, where the ideas are shared (creating a little community although the website would have been better if its design was consistent with the art style of the books). This is the sort of thing my daughters love (both within the 6-11 age group the website is aimed at), coming up with fun ideas and writing their own stories and adventures. I like this part of the book the best.
“Everyone told me my painting should be grey. But I made it purple and I was right. None of this would have happened if I’d done a boring, obvious elephant, would it?”
So let your imaginations run wild and get creating.
The story tells the tale of Will Rivers. At the beginning he is taking part in a “school project, painting a giant mural on the wall of the local zoo”. His contribution is a purple elephant with a yellow “eternity symbol” on its forehead matching a tattoo his Grandma, who lives with them, has.
Will’s artistic efforts displease the teacher. He is forced to paint the elephant a more conventional grey. However, out of hours, Will decides he was right all along and returns to paint it back to purple complete with the eternity symbol.
On the night of his tenth birthday he is drawn back to the zoo wall and something magical happens. On the mural behind his elephant a gate opens. He enters and is taken into the land of the Night Zoo where he becomes the Night Zookeeper.
Upon entering the Night Zoo he finds himself in the Whispering Woods, where the newspaper trees write headlines about what is happening and pass them on to each other. He also meets a talking, spying giraffe called Sam who tells him that the giraffes are in danger from Voids, robots that look like giant spiders, and that he is the Night Zookeeper, the one who will save them all.
Then once Will has (spoiler alert) saved the giraffes, and the story ends with him departing to save other animals in need in another part of the zoo, this book being the first in the series with more to follow, there is a really interesting section to the book which encourages creativity and lets young people get their imaginations going. You’re asked to create your own magical animals and locations. There are few examples sent in by fans and prompts to help. There is a website, nightzookeeper.com, where the ideas are shared (creating a little community although the website would have been better if its design was consistent with the art style of the books). This is the sort of thing my daughters love (both within the 6-11 age group the website is aimed at), coming up with fun ideas and writing their own stories and adventures. I like this part of the book the best.
“Everyone told me my painting should be grey. But I made it purple and I was right. None of this would have happened if I’d done a boring, obvious elephant, would it?”
So let your imaginations run wild and get creating.
May 31, 2020
Fun and imaginative. Now that I get the premise, I may not read the next three in the series, but I bet my son will love them. (I ordered the series because I’m considering signing up my son for Nightzookeeper.com to work on creative writing.)
October 7, 2021
This book was fun to read because it was full of mystery and adventure. I liked the style and shading of the pictures. I thought Will and Riya were very brave. Sam was my favourite character because he has a special ability and he is very funny.
March 3, 2018
A great story that inspires the important message of it's okay to be different and use your imagination.
March 13, 2020
A sensational book for children! It takes you on a beautiful journey into the Night Zoo. Very lovely read!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews