Julia Stuart - The Tower, the Zoo and the Tortoise Short Description:
PDF: 83 pages
Publisher: Doubleday
English
ISBN-13: 978-0385533287
Julia Stuart - The Tower, the Zoo and the Tortoise Long Description:
The humor the author writes with never diminishes the heartbreak the characters feel, and I think I liked this most about the book. I felt like the author's main message was, "Life's tough, but it does go on, and finding humor and love along the way helps."
The cast of animals and the stories about the history of the Tower and its prisoners (and ghosts) is interesting and fun without distracting from the lives of the beefeater, his wife, and the many other characters. All of the characters have their heartbreak to deal with - for some it's loneliness, for another it's feeling abandoned, and for others it's suffering the grief of the death of a loved one. Just about any hurt we might have to deal with in life is presented with ways to cope and heal illustrated in the characters' lives, often with humor and honest emotion. The way the characters deal with their problems and help one another to find something new to try when one idea has failed, is not just funny, but heartfelt, creative and genuine.
There is more to the story than life at the Tower. There is another world to be explored at the Lost and Found, where Hebe (the wife of Balthazar, who is appointed the one in charge of the queen's new animal menagerie) works. Although several small stories take place simultaneously, it's easy to follow each story and the intersections with other characters. I also liked how Hebe's passion for her work ends up helping her in her own life: She meets friends who help her find something she's lost in her life - hope.
The ending felt perfect. Resolution, realization, a plan one worried didn't work the way he wanted it to worked better than he thought. This book satisfied more than I thought - it was deeper, more thought-provoking and had more substance than just a light read. I ended it feeling a bit more hopeful and aware about life's mysteries and quirkiness, the value of finding humor to get through the rough patches, and treasuring the animals that help me along the way.