Taronga presents: Night owls by Kristin Darell. Illus. by Laura Wood

The fourth and final book in the Taronga Presents series written by author Kristin Darell is called Night Owls and showcases the zoo in the evening. It’s the Christmas school holidays and Sophia and Ollie are back volunteering at Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia. For their first job of the day as volunteers they are tasked with solving a Treasure Trek activity in one hour, where cryptic animal clues lead them to name each of the four mystery animals. This trek takes them all over the zoo and finally to the habitat of JR, a long-beaked echidna more than 50 years old. The children are worried JR is missing but they find out he is in another enclosure and may come out during the evening to go back to his usual home. Sophia and Ollie ask to stay and help out at night with moving JR and happily they are given permission by their parents to do so.

Once Taronga Zoo closes for the day, it becomes a different place. Sophia and Ollie are amazed at the noise of the animals, the sunset and the thrill of joining in and helping with the “Roar and Snore” tour.  They wander around with torches that glow red in order to not distress the animals. Ollie finds the night walk a touch scary but with the help of Sophia he copes well.

The thoughtful illustrations spread throughout give more context to the story for those readers who appreciate visual clues. The Treasure Trek quiz is a clever way of sharing animal facts with readers as is Ollie’s Fun Fact File in the final pages. This book would be wonderful hook for teachers to read to students when Information Report writing is focused on during the school year. There are so many different animals discussed and facts given that students could research further and build upon their knowledge.

Themes: Taronga Zoo, Animals, Volunteers, Friendship, Night Walks.

Kathryn Beilby