About Us
- Learn all about Night Zookeeper
- Read about our mission to make learning fantastically fun
Overview
Night Zookeeper is a London-based children’s brand comprising of a web-based learning program, a book series and a TV mini-series. All of our products centre around the magical world of the “Night Zoo”. Our aim is to make learning fantastically fun for children aged 6 to 12 years old, and unlock their creativity. Our flagship online reading and writing program for kids (also referred to as "Night Zookeeper") has been used by over 1 million children worldwide.
Early Years
Night Zookeeper was founded in 2012 by Joshua Davidson and Paul Hutson. Our e-learning product was originally launched in November 2012 as a creative drawing iOS app for kids, which went on to be recognised as one of the 50 best apps of 2013 by The Observer and The Guardian.
In 2014, we revamped the app into a web version which included more extensive writing elements, a dashboard for monitoring progress and personalised feedback from tutors. Over 1 billion words have been written by children on the site. Night Zookeeper is also used in schools by teachers worldwide in an effort to harness the power of digital learning in the classroom. Amazingly, we have reached over a million students across 10,000 schools.
Releasing Books
Our children's book series, written by our co-founder and managing director, Joshua Davidson, was acquired by Oxford University Press (OUP) Children’s in 2017. The first book of the series, The Giraffes of the Whispering Wood, was published in January 2018. This was swiftly followed by The Lioness of Fire Desert, The Penguins of Igloo City and The Elephant of Tusk Temple. The 5th book of the series, The Bear of Flying Mountain, was released in Summer 2021. Book 6, the Sea Lion of Endless Ocean, followed in November 2022. The stories are aimed at children aged 7+, and are available both digitally and in print.
Moving into TV
In 2019, a 10-part Night Zookeeper TV series was commissioned by Sky Kids. The show was inspired by submissions from children, making it the first animated children’s series to collaborate with thousands of kids on the creation of each episode. The Night Zookeeper show was animated by BAFTA and Emmy award-winning studio Karrot Animation, and can be streamed on both Sky Kids and Now TV. Each episode is approximately 5 minutes long, and features the characters found also on the Night Zookeeper online program, including Will, Riya and Sam.
Landing in homes
Having initially been created for in-school use, in 2019 we evolved Night Zookeeper into an at-home learning program, in addition to our in-school service. This proved especially popular throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, when Night Zookeeper was consequently able to provide families across the world an invaluable educational and entertainment resource. Many of these families realize the potential for Night Zookeeper beyond lockdowns and school closures, and are united with us on our mission of helping millions more children worldwide improve their reading and writing skills in a fantastically fun way.
In October 2024, Night Zookeeper released an iOS app version of the program for Apple iPad, available to download in the iOS store. In 2025, the brand is due to release a mobile app.
As the world's first gamified reading & writing program for kids, Night Zookeeper continues to lead the way in providing an unrivalled, cutting-edge ed tech product that encourages children to improve their literacy skills. Our reviews testify to the positive impact it has on children's lives, welfare and education, and our product is endorsed by Smarter Learning Guide, Cathy Duffy, and many other educational authorities.
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Night Zookeeper is a brand created and owned by the company Wonky Star Ltd.
Our Founders
Awards
We have been very humbled by the recognition we have received for our work. In 2016, our development team received a BAFTA nomination at the first ever British Academy Children’s Award for the ‘Learning - Primary in 2015’ category. Night Zookeeper has also received accolades from Common Sense Learning, The London Book Fair, BETT and Design For Experience.
Our work has also been recognised by the teaching community, being awarded the Teacher Choice 2021 award by EdTech Impact.
