The Last Zookeeper

Starred review from December 4, 2023
This beguiling ark story, splendidly drafted in wordless spreads, stars a robot zookeeper who combines the spare-parts body of Wall-E with the gentle bearing of Amos McGee. The enormous robot dwarfs the toylike giraffes, pandas, tigers, and other charismatic megafauna that it cares for in a postapocalyptic landscape of half-submerged architectural gems, and it makes model sailboats after a long day of labor. When rain begins to fall and the sea rises further, the robot gathers the animals and executes a large-scale idea. Usable wreckage, the robot’s fascination with boatbuilding, and its own built-in tools produce a magnificent sloop capable of carrying the whole menagerie to safety—until a massive storm strikes at sea. While the place where the ship grounds is desolate, the unexpected appearance of a new friend changes everything. An epigraph from Jane Goodall makes the story’s conservation message clear, but Becker (The Tree and the River) avoids polemics in favor of worldbuilding that suggests the need for early action, underscores the power of practical measures, and holds out the promise of hope. Ages 5–9.

January 1, 2024
Becker's (The Tree and the River, rev. 3/23) latest wordless fantasy takes readers to a post-apocalyptic future. Animals in a flooded zoo huddle on exposed bits of dry land; they are tended by an enormous yellow robot with wind turbines mounted on its back. Becker works in landscape orientation, with the robot's verticality dominating most compositions. Viewers get a sense of its scale by the relative smallness of the animals -- it can hold two pandas, an adult and a cub, in its palm. Becker gives readers no clues as to the nature of the calamity that has befallen this place beyond the endless water, the decay of the zoo buildings, and the utter absence of humans. But he does give them some semblance of hope. As the water rises, the robot fashions an ark of sorts. The animals file aboard, and they all set sail on a journey that gives Becker ample opportunity to explore the moods of his seascape. An encounter with another robot, this one blue and powered by solar panels, leads to sanctuary. Its hot air balloon accommodates both robots and all the animals, carrying them to an Edenic island, lush with vegetation and complete with waterfall and rainbow. Becker's characteristically virtuosic ink and watercolor paintings offer much for young readers to pore over and peer at, which may be enough for many. Others will find the story and the questions it poses lingering long after the book is closed. Vicky Smith

(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from January 1, 2024
Caldecott Honoree Becker's dystopian imaginings once more find fruit in picture-book format. The biblical Noah as a gargantuan robot? Stranger things have been conceived of. In flooded lands replete with incredibly detailed architecture (think David Macaulay meets WALL-E's world) but with no humans in sight, a towering yellow robot, the word NOA on its arm, powered by wind turbines from its back, sets forth to collect all the animals of the world. The waters rise to NOA's knees, but still our robotic avatar collects with infinite kindness every giraffe, panda, tiger, and elephant it can find. The crumbling world around them hints at the zoos and circuses where once these creatures made their homes. Now, they sail away with NOA on a boat built by the automaton. This wordless tale outlines their struggles, from storm to shipwreck and, ultimately, to hope. The allusions to both Noah's Ark and Eden are sly but ever present, set as they are against Becker's sumptuous watercolor and pen-and-ink backdrops. Here, the very existence of life on Earth hangs in the balance, and the stakes have never been higher. Minute details pepper each scene, giving sharp-eyed readers the chance to find something new every time they page through this book (like the fact that the meat-eating tigers are kept in their own separate cage on the robot's boat). True fans will find themselves poring over these pictures for hours. Epic storytelling erupts on the page without the use of a single word. Superb. (Picture book. 4-7)

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

March 1, 2024
Grades K-3 In another visionary wordless picture book by multiple award-winning author-illustrator Becker, an endearing, gigantic, yellow-bodied robot wearing a quiver of wind turbines tends to the feeding of zoo animals; as rising waters turn their habitats into increasingly smaller islands, the resourceful robot fashions an enormous vessel from salvaged flotsam. Vast skies turn from rosy dawns to star-scattered nights as the boat sets off carrying its cargo of rescued animals, but a thrashing storm leaves it wrecked on a sandbank. Fortunately, another enormous robot--purple and sporting a solar panel on its back--arrives in a hot air balloon to offer friendly assistance. The new partners sail skyward with their animal charges toward a new island home. Compelling environmental references are both dramatic (the shifting splendor of skies and seas in spreads of magnificent watercolor washes) and specific (the ecology symbols painted on the robots' bellies and the yellow robot's ever-present flamingo friends.) In this gentle postapocalyptic fable, presented through scenes both breathtaking and charmingly inventive, an ingenious and courageous struggle for survival yields a tender and hopeful ending.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from June 14, 2024

PreS-Gr 3-Caldecott Honoree Becker (Journey) reimagines Noah's tale as a robot in a post-apocalyptic world seemingly devoid of human life. NOA, a turbine-powered robot that dwarfs the animals he cares for, carefully separates the carnivorous tigers from the elephants, giraffes, and hippos as he feeds them each day. Flamingos fly and perch on the tender NOA, who returns to his shelter at night to build small boats. Becker's art is highly detailed, using watercolor defined by pen and ink that invite inquiry and discussion. NOA bears a dove decal, and the animals are surrounded by buildings with carved animal shapes, suggesting the area was once a zoo. When water rises, NOA builds a large ship for the animals and sets sail with a hope that is rewarded. Each small movement of NOA conveys emotion and the value of caring for our planet. NOA's loneliness, his horror over the rising water, his concern-all are palpable. Although the main story is wordless, this quotation by Jane Goodall appears before the title page: "Only if we understand, can we care. Only if we care, can we help. Only if we help, shall all be saved." There are beautiful applications for using this title in the classroom and library to jumpstart projects on conservation. Older readers will experience complex feelings watching NOA care for the world in a way so many humans do not. VERDICT A wordless picture book with so much to say, this is one for all children, and all collections.-Rachel Zuffa

Copyright 2024 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2024
Becker's (The Tree and the River, rev. 3/23) latest wordless fantasy takes readers to a post-apocalyptic future. Animals in a flooded zoo huddle on exposed bits of dry land; they are tended by an enormous yellow robot with wind turbines mounted on its back. Becker works in landscape orientation, with the robot's verticality dominating most compositions. Viewers get a sense of its scale by the relative smallness of the animals -- it can hold two pandas, an adult and a cub, in its palm. Becker gives readers no clues as to the nature of the calamity that has befallen this place beyond the endless water, the decay of the zoo buildings, and the utter absence of humans. But he does give them some semblance of hope. As the water rises, the robot fashions an ark of sorts. The animals file aboard, and they all set sail on a journey that gives Becker ample opportunity to explore the moods of his seascape. An encounter with another robot, this one blue and powered by solar panels, leads to sanctuary. Its hot air balloon accommodates both robots and all the animals, carrying them to an Edenic island, lush with vegetation and complete with waterfall and rainbow. Becker's characteristically virtuosic ink and watercolor paintings offer much for young readers to pore over and peer at, which may be enough for many. Others will find the story and the questions it poses lingering long after the book is closed.

(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)