Zoo Tales Blog: How I went from zookeeper to children’s book author

For Zoo Tales week, Lorraine Miller writes about her journey from zookeeping, to authoring children's books like 'The Zookeepers' Quest,' which she produces together with illustrator Jessica Miller.

We are also thrilled to be giving away two copies of their book this week (1.3.23). Enter via social media posts -  [Facebook link], [Instagram link]. 

I started my zookeeping career as a float keeper in my local zoo after finishing my bachelor’s degree in zoology and wildlife conservation. I was fortunate enough to be able to gain experience with many different species from monkeys and meerkats to tigers and tapirs before finding a love of great apes. Once I had gained a fair amount of experience in the field, I moved to New Zealand to facilitate the transfer of the first gorillas into the country before returning to the UK to work in several different facilities, working mainly with great apes.

By the time I became pregnant with my son I had 15 years of experience under my belt and had worked with all four species of great ape extensively. During my maternity leave, my partner, who is also a zoo professional, was offered a position in Perth Zoo, Western Australia. Not knowing whether I would find myself in a practical zoo position again for a while, I started my own great ape consultancy business (Great Ape Consultancy), which I still run today. As Western Australia had locked down as soon as Covid 19 hit, it had been isolated from the rest of the world and therefore had (at that time) no presence of the virus at all, therefore my consultancy business was restricted to remote work for quite some time. It was during this time of uncertainty in my professional life and being somewhat isolated from the rest of the world that I tried my hand at something very different.

My sister, Jess, is an artist and primary school teaching assistant who loves illustrating wildlife and nature. Doing this mainly as a hobby, she was keen to try something more structured such as a children’s book. With my knowledge of wildlife conservation and her experience in education, not to mention her skills as an artist we combined our passions and came up with a series of conservation themed children’s books called ‘The Zookeepers’ Quest’. Each book would focus on a new country, habitat, species and conservation issue that would inspire and educate children on the plight of these species and habitats. We added in a parent’s page, to give adults a little more information on the highlighted conservation issue and a tick list of things kids can do at home to help the situation, as well as partnering with a relevant conservation project, to which the book donates a proportion of its profits too.

“I have always been passionate about drawing animals and love the smooth flow of organic lines and natural textures as opposed to the straight edges and flat patterns found in human design. As a teaching assistant I find illustrations are a fantastic tool to teach children about the importance of wildlife and our natural world.” – Jessica Miller (Illustrator)

After only a few weeks of the first book being published we received an offer from Dixi Books to publish the rest of the series. As my writing element didn’t take nearly as long to write as the illustrations did to complete, I started writing other manuscripts for children, all focused on wildlife, zoology and conservation. I had created a new career without ever meaning to, what had started out as a fun family project had turned into something so much more. I was now able to educate children on conservation in a very different way from when I was a zookeeper but was still able to use my skills and knowledge to inspire and teach. Both my consultancy and author businesses are extremely flexible and have allowed me to find the important work-life balance so many of us crave when working in an industry that instills a passion unlike any other.

- Lorraine Miller (https://thezookeepersquest.com/)

We're giving away copies of Lorraine and Jessica's book! To enter, check out the recent post on our Facebook or Instagram (1.3.2023)

All blogs reflect the views of their author and are not a reflection of BIAZA's positions.