Author: Mat Gardener

Publisher: Martin J. Hibbs

Published:

Total Pages: 85

ISBN-13:

This particular story is about Olly’s local zoo and the adventures he has with some of the creatures who live there. After Olly’s father sees an article about the zoo in the local paper and how they might have to close down, he decides to take the family there for a day out. Whilst they are there, the family each decide to sponsor one of the creatures to help support the zoo and keep it open. This prompts a whole series of dreams where Olly imagines himself taking the animals the family have sponsored, out on various adventures. The story ends with Olly going to see where zoo animals come from and he learns what an important job they do in protecting endamgered species. This story aims to show young readers how important it is to support zoos which offer sanctuary to the worlds’ most endangered animal species. Whilst in an ideal world animals are best left in their natural habitat, this story aims to show that this is not always in their best interests to live in the wild. In cases where species are hunted down and killed for medicine, and where unrestrained habitat destruction occurs, zoo parks have an important role to play. Not only do zoo parks offer sanctuary for such animals, they also raise important publicity in respect to their plight in their natural habitats, which can be used to put pressure on politicians and world leaders to offer protection to such creatures and their habitats. They also offer important breeding opportunities so that colonies of the animals can be re-established in their original habitat, once conditions allow. In the latter part of the story, habitat destruction is illustrated very clearly in order to make young readers’/listeners conscious of how rainforests are being destroyed at an alarming rate.