The Secret Zoo: A Fast-Paced Middle Grade Fantastic Tale About Kids Discovering a Zoo's Dark Secret

I read this aloud to my two daughters (7, 6), and they loved this story! They especially enjoyed the animals.

I think this is a good book because it is exciting, funny, mysterious, and just a happy book to read as a family or yourself. But i loved those prairie dog dudes👍

My daughter and I read this book simultaneously as a book club if sorts. It is fast paced and the short chapters make it really easy to get through. Nearly every chapter made you want to keep reading. Highly recommend this book!

The Secret Zoo is a fun read for the whole family. I first purchased it as an audiobook that my family listened to on a road trip, and we loved it. Fantasy is not my favorite genre, especially for children's literature...and not for my kids either, who prefer action/outdoor adventure books. This story has enough elements of mystery and adventure that we were all able to get past the idea thats its completely unrealistic. I guess that's what fantasy is all about, which is why I don't generally choose it. We dreaded our gas stops because we didn't want to stop, and my husband made us pause it when he would go in so he didn't miss anything. We liked it enough to come home and pre-order the sequel, hopefully we'll like it as well. My eight year old wants to dive right in, but we will probably read it as a family as well, since its a tough read for the younger kids. I gave 4 stars only because some of the magical elements in the book are pretty far fetched, with no plausible basis in the real world, but if this doesn't bother you, and even if it does, its definitely worth a try.

My daughter has to start reading chapter books in school so I wanted to get her prepared and bought a bunch of different books to read. This was one of them. With the others, I've had to remind her to read X amount of pages for her reading log, but I don't have to with this book! She loves it so much that she's been asking me or telling me that she's gonna read it, and she's been reading it for longer periods of time. She has been so excited to tell me all about what she read when she's done. So this seems to be a really good book for little kids when they start reading more challenging books!

This book is exhilarating. My 10 year old says its the best book he's ever read. This book, while geared towards a 5th to 8th grade reading level brings about emotions of fear, happiness, love, joy, excitement and a whirlwind of others. At times it is funny and at times a bit scary for a younger child. I would say certain concepts are inferred such as kidnapping or missing children, death, and fighting, however done so in a way that lends itself to a comic relief. We will be continuing the series. The prairie dogs and Blizzard were our favorites. Highly reccomend this.

Reading this to my children at bedtime was delightful. I admittedly wasn’t sure how this story would fare. But page after page, I fell into adventure with Noah and the scouts and the authors voice. Excited to start the next book in the series.

My kids 7 and 9 loved the book but i will say it has some suspenseful moments that made it not a good bedtime story but we loved it anyway.

I bought this to read to my 6 year old son at bedtime - and found myself reading on after he'd fallen asleep each evening!! It's such an exciting and interesting concept - a group of children who discover there is far more to the local Zoo than they ever imagined! Their adventures are amazing, and the animals they befriend are great characters. I can't wait for the next book to come out so we can find out what happens next.

I like it

My grandson and I have been reading together on FaceTime throughout the pandemic. This is one of the best books we've read! The story is engaging and whimsical, and the writing is excellent! This is what children's literature should be. Josh and I highly recommend this book. We plan to read the whole series.

My daughter enjoyed reading this book.

Loved by my granddaughter!