Fred and Helen Martini longed for a baby, and they ended up with dozens of lion and tiger cubs! Helen begins her Bronx Zoo career by raising a single lion cub whose mothers is unable to care for it. After raising others in her home, she insists that she accompany them to the zoo. She soon develops nursery, and the zoo hires her to care for baby animals. ( )

I like our heroine’s quiet strength in this one. She didn’t set out to smash the patriarchy - she just let love and kindness guide her actions, and followed that instinct where it lead, unconventional or not.

Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss. ( )

Super charming story of how Helen Martini raised cubs in her Bronx apartment and how she turned that into a job at the Bronx Zoo and became the Bronx Zoo;s First Woman Zookeeper. The illustrations are perfect. ( )

"Helen and Fred Martini longed for a baby..." But despite their ready nursery, no baby arrives. Instead, Fred brings home a lion cub from the Bronx Zoo where he works, and Helen bathed him, bottle-fed him, named him (MacArthur), and put him to bed in the empty crib. After MacArthur, it was three tiger cubs - Raniganj, Dacca, and Rajpur - and these, she refused to be separated from, so when it was time for them to go back to the zoo, Helen went too. She converted a storeroom to a nursery, and the zoo curator offered her the brand-new job "keeper of the nursery."

Back matter includes "A Quieter Kind of Hero" with a condensed but detailed version of Helen Martini's story and a photo of her with a tiger cub; selected bibliography; and source notes. Endpapers are bright tiger-orange. ( )