View source for The Zookeeper's Dragon: A Magical Modern Fantasy Tale for Grown-Ups by Carolyn Mathews

{{infobox1
|title=The Zookeeper's Dragon: A Magical Modern Fantasy Tale for Grown-Ups
|sort=Zookeeper's Dragon: A Magical Modern Fantasy Tale for Grown-Ups
|author=Carolyn Mathews
|reviewer=Alex Mitchell
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=A wonderful story about love, connection, and the world beyond the mundane, written with a great deal of humour and heart, though I would've liked it to be a little longer.
|rating=4.5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=233
|publisher=Amazon
|date=November 2025
|isbn=978-B0GHPMNF6P
|cover=B0GHPMNF6P
|aznuk=B0GHPMNF6P
|aznus=B0GHPMNF6P
}}

When Phil's father unexpectedly dies, he quits his Canary Wharf finance job to take over the running of the family's farm zoo. He's not expecting much excitement, until he receives an unidentified egg that his new-age stoner uncle Edgar found in a cave in New Zealand, and suddenly life is no longer quite what it seems. Then the egg hatches into neither a reptile nor a bird, but a dragon! Now he, Edgar, his mother Abi, and the zoo's part-time café waitress Pearl have to raise this little bundle of scales and joy, despite having no idea how to actually raise dragons and not being able to tell anyone about it. But this tiny little dragon may show them love and connection in ways they had never before imagined…

While it is quite a short read, barely over 200 pages, the book manages to keep up a good pace and sustained my interest. The general voice of the book incorporates a great deal of humour, not really laugh-out-loud kind of humour, but more in a sort of sustained low-level wryness that kept me amused throughout. One thing I didn't really expect when I started reading was quite how emotional the book would make me. While I didn't cry while reading this, I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a little bit of a lump in my throat come the end of the story. Personally, I thought the ending was a little abrupt, and I would've preferred a longer climax and denouement to properly wrap things up, but other than that the story keeps up a good pace. 

The characters in the book are pretty well-developed, with a variety of different personalities. They each contribute something different to the plot and all work together really well, with plenty of the story's funny and heartwarming moments coming from the ways they interact with each other and deal with this new situation. And then we have the titular character, Rhodri the dragon, who is adorable in his own little way, and his interactions with the others are really sweet to read about. In many ways, the story isn't really about Rhodri, it's more about the people looking after him and how they navigate their relationships to each other, and I think the author pulls that off really well. 

There is quite a bit of new-age philosophy woven throughout the book, including the classics such as ley lines, magic crystals, fertility rituals, and consorting with a variety of pre-Abrahamic deities, but it does have some additions that I'm not as familiar with. For example, there's a whole section that talks about dragons that embody different elements and higher dragons that can traverse dimensions, which are certainly interesting additions to the world of the book and might prompt further reading. One interesting thing is that, right up until the climax, most of the alleged conversations with the higher dragons aren't actually shown to the reader or the other characters. With the exception of Rhodri, most of the mystical happenings are described to us by another characters instead of being actually shown from the characters' perspectives. I guess this could symbolise the characters' lack of belief, with their general scepticism towards the paranormal preventing them from really experiencing it, until the climax affirms their faith in things beyond the mundane and allows them to fully experience them. Rhodri is supposedly a Dragon of Light, whose job is to restore the balance between the realms and to bring people closer together. In a mundane sort of a way, he has very much achieved his purpose; he's brought the main characters together and strengthened the bonds between them. 

In conclusion, I think this is a wonderful little story about love, connection, and the supernatural, that tells you that, no matter how mundane your life may seem, you should always leave a little room in your life for a little magic…

If you enjoy this story, you might also enjoy:

[[Transforming Pandora by Carolyn Mathews]] – a little of the author's previous work.

[[Earth, Air, Fire and Custard by Tom Holt]] – an office sitcom with some magic sprinkled in.

[[The Odd Egg by Emily Gravett]] - for children who might like a story about the strange hatching of an egg. 

You can read more about Carolyn Mathews [[:Category:Carolyn Mathews|here]].

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