The Last Zookeeper
By Aaron Becker
Published by Candlewick Press
Mom's Review
Talk about a heartbreaking and beautiful cautionary tale. This wordless picture book shows a giant robot caring for the few surviving inmates of a zoo in a flooded world. Stunning illustrations show the love and concern the robot wordlessly showers on the animals. This lack of language and the absence of humans is glaring, implicating humanity in the destruction of the world as we know it.
The Last Zookeeper is also remarkably biblical, with the robot flying to a dry mountain paradise rising from the floodwaters and crowned by a rainbow. The last zookeeper and the ark of animals together emphasize the power humankind has for destruction - or salvation if we use that power properly.
I am struck by the power of The Last Zookeeper.
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