I read this book back in 2011, but never registered it via BC because it was in Kindle format. I've just picked up a paper copy of this at a local Little Free Library, and I plan to release it in Warsaw during an upcoming trip.

Here was my review (from Goodreads):

It's really hard to review or even rate this book. On one hand, it had some amazing stories of resilience, human nature (good and bad) and little tidbits of WWII information in it -- but on the other hand, it wasn't altogether that interesting and the format was not easy to read. I know, sounds strange.

First of all, I knew this was a non-fiction book, and that the book was based on true events. However, I didn't really know how the story was going to be written, how the information would be presented. Turns out, the author used the personal journals of the Zookeeper's Wife(Antonina)for most of the information -- so the story is sort of written "from her mouth", but then again, it's not -- there's a lot of supposition and "what might have happened" thrown in there. It made the narrative a bit strange to read.

Second,there was way too much boring filler thrown in, too much detail about things that weren't essential to the story or just weren't interesting. I wasn't interested in reading about all of the political strive (although, YES, that was a huge piece of the pie), and I certainly don't need pages and pages of descriptions of all the bugs that were in some random guy's bug collection that was being hidden at the zoo. Ugh, totally disgusting and BORING!

I did like reading about the zoo itself and all the funny and quirky stories about the animals, and how many of them were treated like, and became, family pets -- although I was saddened and disgusted at the fates of many of the helpless, harmless animals. Just more innocent victims in the lunacy of what happened in WWII.

All in all, I guess I was just disappointed. I'm not sure what I expected, but it wasn't this. Sure, some of it was good -- but overall, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

I plan to release the book somewhere in Warsaw on an upcoming trip to Poland, and will update with details once I have them.

>^..^< >^..^< >^..^< >^..^< >^..^< >^..^< >^..^< >^..^<

To the finder of this book:

Hello and congratulations!

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The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single release!!

Happy Reading!

I intended to release this book at the Warsaw Zoo, but the book was in my luggage that was delayed by the airline and I didn't receive it in time.

So, instead I'm releasing the book in the business center room of my hotel, on the same floor as reception.

Happy travels little book!