The Last Zookeeper

By Aaron Becker. Candlewick Press, 2024. 40 pages. $18.99/hardcover or eBook. Recommended for ages 5–9.

This book could not be more timely. It contains elegant and eloquently drawn atmospheric washes of watercolor that are both broad and strong, chilling and hopeful. The illustrations are laden with telling details that energize a wordless yet thoughtful story.

The main character is NOA, a plucky robot of enormous size but just right in both body and spirit for facing an enormous task. NOA’s world echoes that of the original, biblical Noah whose task was to save pairs of every animal on Earth from an angry God’s worldwide flood. The world Aaron Becker summons from his agile brush is also one of abandonment: to be saved, at first, by one sole robot, NOA, whose previous job was to build defensive seawalls with a crew of fellow robots.

Now covered in monumental ruins and flooded by vast seas, the world as it was known is extinguished. What remains at this zoo are some pretentious domes that have become islands on which nimble-footed creatures and plants survive by instinct and wit.

First things come first, as NOA hand-feeds the survivors: grateful giraffes stretch out their necks from eroding shores to take a life-saving bite. Next we see NOA—all resolution and brawn—burning midnight oil over a study desk above a rising ocean, dreaming up a plan before time runs out. The next morning NOA gently plucks tigers, zebras, pandas, and others from danger, to relocate them via handy carrying cases that hang from the robot’s neck and arms. Then NOA builds a magnificent boat and sets sail with all the animals on board.

We begin to wonder if NOA is equipped, like any up-to-date robot, with not only brawn and heart but also intelligence. And if so, where are NOA, the rescued zoo animals, and we readers going? On this journey, we need a sharp eye for details, which, if finely observed, allow us to ride along and cheer. We share the ups and downs of the voyage as allies in spirit and hope. We wonder if we and NOA, alone in our lonely quest, will earn some gifts of the brave—or not.

Come along, says every page we turn and turn back numerous times to observe where we’ve been and where we’re going: step by fateful step, thought by thought, we weave together an enormous, time-sensitive . . . last errand?

This book is recommended for children ages 5–9 who will certainly enjoy exercising their exceptional observational capacity, alongside parents or other adults who likewise will become sleuths in search of the visual details that are so subtly laid all over in The Last Zookeeper’s world.

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James Foritano attends Friends Meeting at Cambridge (Mass.).