Just So Stories

Harper Collins

• ISBN: 9781460716434
• ISBN 10: 1460716434
• Imprint: HarperCollins/Angus & Robertson
• RRP $12.99

Last night (13/03) I had another wonderful evening at Quick Brown Fox bookshop for a Reading Between the Wines event. Tina Strachan was one of the authors, and it was fortuitous that I had just read this first in her series.

We all know that so many kiddos are mad for animal stories, If you have younger ones who gobbled up the recent Taronga Zoo books and are ready to step up their reading and have another deep dive into the everyday workings of a zoo, they will be in seventh heaven with this.

Tina brings her 20 years of experience as a wildlife carer, conservationist, vet nurse and zoo keeper into this super-engaging narrative. Neeka lives in a zoo – well, the family house is behind the fence. Her mum is a zoo vet, her dad a teacher. She also has a little brother Gus. Neeka adores living in the zoo (who wouldn’t? it’s like so many kids’ ultimate dream!) and spends all her spare time there.

She is there every morning – though with (now) a strict schedule to be home in time to get to school. She’s also there pretty much every afternoon. In the afternoons she’s often joined by her besties Hudson and Rumi. They help the keepers, they do odd jobs, they learn to care for animals, and they make videos of the amusing or interesting antics which get posted to the zoo’s social media.

When Neeka is determined to win the Engagement Excellence section of the annual Zoo Association Awards for the second year, she settles on training the red panda, Rebel, for her video. Her nemesis at school has been needling her about a hot-shot young girl who is posting very professional videos from a zoo on the other side of the country, and Neeka knows hers will need to be super excellent to beat that out.

Of course, there are misadventures galore along the way and readers will be doubled up with laughter at various points, as well as absorbing much information about the daily doings of a zoo. When Neeka realises that the gate key she has for her own use, a huge reponsiblity in itself, has gone missing – there are all sorts of ramifications including the very real possibility that an animal might have swallowed it! eeek!!

The big moment [and I’m using that adjective very deliberately] will really send the kiddos into peals of laughter – and it would, indeed, make for great video footages.

Tina’s sharing of just a few of the highlights of her career was fascinating, and I would strongly urge you to engage her as a presenter at your school if possible. She’s well used to presenting to kids as she has done so in her ‘animals’ role as well.

I would suggest that capable year 3 readers would enjoy this but more likely around year 4 up, simply because they will grab some of the more technical words and concepts more easily I think. Max Hamilton has (unsurprisingly!) created some absolutely delightful illustrations as well as the map of the zoo.

How fun would it be for kids to design their own zoo map, perhaps one they know or have visited, build one in a digital platform or construct a model? A whole class 3D model zoo perhaps??

The narrative has some choice layers to unpack about responsibilty, kindness, friendship, family and the love of animals. And, without doubt, there’s a genuine ‘feel good’ about this one, which kiddos will appreciate. I can easily envisage it making for a great serial read [and a terrific carrot to dangle on days where you need some calm!].

It gets a huge 5 🐘🦒🦘🐅🐾 rating for your mid-upper primary kiddos! looking forward to #2 and #3, both of which will be out before the end of the year!