Neeka and the Great Search (Wilder Zoo #3) by Tina Strachan, illustrated by Max Hamilton

Title: Neeka and the Great Search (Wilder Zoo #3)

Author: Tina Strachan, illustrated by Max Hamilton

Genre: Contemporary Middle Grade

Publisher: HarperCollins Australia

Published: 28^th January 2026

Format: Paperback

Pages: 272

Price: $16.99

Synopsis: When you live in a zoo – things can get wild! The final book in the Wilder Zoo series.

Eleven-year-old Neeka Wilder is living her dream – spending her days with wildlife, learning how to be a vet like her mum, and hanging out with Hudson and Rumi, her two best friends.

When Hudson and Rumi go away for the school holidays, Neeka creates a big list of zoo jobs to keep herself busy. But her plans go anything but smoothly. With three am wake-ups, video editing fails, friendship troubles, and a search for an injured wild koala joey, Neeka’s life just got a whole lot busier!

~*~

Neeka usually looks forward to the school holidays. It means more time at the zoo, and more time with her best friends, Rumi and Hudson. But they’re both going away, and Neeka is alone. Well, sort of. The daughter of her father’s best friend is coming to stay. Neeka’s list of zoo jobs, which includes making video for Vet Nurse Appreciation Day. But without Hudson and Pixie, she’s lost when it comes to editing. Until Miranda turns up. Neeka is thrilled, and does everything she can to get to know Miranda, including getting her to edit the video. She thinks she’s doing the right thing, giving Miranda the non-messy jobs to do, based on how Miranda reacts to bugs and the outside.

Things aren’t going so smoothly though. Between the 3am wakeups, injured koalas, and feeling like she’s losing her friends and Miranda’s distance, she’s not sure if she’s ever doing the right thing. Everything seems to be going wrong, even when she tries to work on the video herself. She’s lost, and has no idea how to fix things. But Neeka has her family and the zoo staff to guide her. If she can get through her latest set of challenges at the zoo, may be they can help her work out her friendship challenges and how to be a better friend.

Neeka’s latest adventure is just as charming as the first two, and uses the story to share stories and lessons about confidence, friendship and growing as a person. Everything we see and read about is through Neeka’s perspective, where we see the world through her eyes, and we see how she interprets how Miranda acts around her. She’s aware she struggles with some things, like making friends and working out what other people might prefer doing. And she tries hard, which is all we can really ask from anyone for anything. If we don’t have all the information we need, we can only work with what we have. This is exactly what is happening with Neeka. She uses what she’s told to plan things, which shapes the story and the way she relates to people, her nervousness and desire to be able to talk to people more easily.

I think her sense of feeling adrift without her friends works well too as she searches for the missing baby koala. She’s growing up, and worried that she’ll drift apart from her friends, that they’ll never be together forever. It can be something that a lot of kids Neeka’s age might feel, especially if they change schools after primary school, or if their friends go to different schools. The transition from year six to high school, whether its within the same school or to different schools is a huge change for all kids. There are so many changes to get used to, and in this book, it feels like Neeka is getting a taste of that, and what might be in her future when it comes to friendships. It’s a great addition to the series, and I love seeing what Neeka learns in each book, as well as what she teaches the reader about wildlife and the zoo. I loved going on the journey with her to look for the koala, and the evolution of her relationship with Miranda.

It continues the series well, highlighting that everyone has challenges at any age, and that we all have times when we are separated from our friends. And when we get back together after long separations, this makes the reunions much more fun. This series has something for everyone, and middle grade readers will love being able to see themselves in the books, or being able to understand the challenges people they know might be facing in their lives.