The Zookeeper's Wife

I read this book quite a few years ago. And when my son, Zach was in school and had to do a World War II book report I told him about it and gave it to him to read. Then when my girls were in High School and it came time for them to do this same assignment, I gave The Zookeeper's Wife to Lexi, and to Erica I gave what was to become one of her all time favorite books; The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom. I don't tend to read a lot of Historical books, but when I do, I like the World War II Era, for both Historical Fiction and Non Fiction. And this is a really good story. It's a true story of Zookeepers who hid over 300 Jewish people in their bombed out Zoo in Warsaw, Poland, even while having it occupied by the military, thus saving their lives.

I was so excited when this Movie Trailer came out and I've wanted to see it since it came out. But not being a big "blockbuster", not all theaters carried it, and the closest theaters to my house were not showing it. We tried to squeeze it in over Easter weekend, but it didn't work out. So we had picked a weekday evening that neither of my girls worked, which doesn't happen often, but I ended up with a migraine. Then this weekend, we decided we were going! So after my girls got off work on Saturday, we drove from Gilbert to a theater in Mesa to see it, only to be told, there were only 8 seats left for the showing, and of course they couldn't guarantee we'd find 4 seats together, or not in the front row, etc. Um, no thank you. We couldn't help but wonder if maybe we're not supposed to see this film! But I really wanted to. So we tried one last time. Sunday evening we drove back to the theater in Mesa, and Finally got admittance into the Zoo! :) The book by Diane Ackerman, is based on the translated journals of Antonia Zabinska, and isn't always easy to follow, or really well written. But it is such a great story, that deserves to be told! The movie is visually stunning. And yes, this is one of the extremely rare instances in which the Movie happens to be even better than the Book! That's right, I said it!!