A world of ‘Zoo Buddies’

By Peter Gleeson

A WOMAN living in Portroe who decided to try her hand at writing a children’s book is now about to see her efforts come to fruition as her creation is set to be published this week.

Joanne Morgan, a mother of three young boys, told such stimulating and imaginative stories to her own offspring that a friend suggested she should put them in a book.

“You know”, says Joanne, “the way you would be making up stories for the kids going to bed, and a mate of mine asked if I would try write them down. And I said, ‘I'll give it a go.’”

And out of this ‘Zoo Buddies’, a book tailored for children aged three to six was born.

A native of Dublin, but living in Portroe for the past 12 years and working in Nenagh as a Senior Clinical Child Psychologist, Joanne’s story features the Zoo Buddies who all live together in Huckleberry Zoo.

It’s their friend, The Chimp’s, birthday and they get busy organising a surprise party.

“So they do these funny things to try to distract the Chimp to keep the party a surprise. Brandon and Bobby Bear put on this juggling act and other Zoo Buddies make a cake, while other animals do funny things for children visiting the zoo,” says Joanne, who is hoping that chidren and adults alike will find it an endearing story.

“The characters are nice and formed for that three to six year age group. I’m hoping that those characters will jump off the page.”

As a child psychologist she has woven into the story what she calls “positive psychological themes” that encompass qualities such as resilience, problem solving, team work and friendship.

She says she focused on keeping the language simple. “The idea was that it would allow older children to read the story to younger children who can’t yet read,” says Joanne.

It involves an effort to create a bond and special time between younger and older siblings who can together enjoy a lovely story and the beautiful illustrations that complement the story.

“I’m hoping it’s not just going to be a book that parents read to their very young children,” says Joanne, “but that older brothers and sisters would read to the younger ones.”

She says she cannot stress enough the importance of books for children, which was a primary driver in writing ‘Zoo Buddies’. “For kids to be interested in reading is such a huge thing.”

Joanne’s own three sons actually feature in the book. Cameron (9) is a giraffe, Brandon (6) is “Brandon the Bear” and Tristan (4) is “the most mischevious elephant”.

‘Zoo Buddies’, which is published by Austin MacCauley, will be on sale from this Thursday, September 30. It will be available on Amazon and in local bookshops.

Official launches are in the pipeline in Eason’s and World of Wonder in Nenagh, the exact date all dependent on a further easing of Covid restrictions, and Joanne also wishes to thank other local bookstores, including The Nenagh Bookstore and JKC’s for their support.

And it looks like this will be just the first instalment charting the adventures of the Zoo Buddies. Joanne is now writing the second book in what is hoped will eventually run to a series.

Talks on creating some activity books to complement the Zoo Buddies series are also taking place, so it’s all looking good for Joanne.