Seven-year-old Margarita Brown wakes from a coma to find herself unable to speak or hear--until she visits the Bronx Zoo where the voice of a giraffe penetrates her silent world. With Henry, the kind-hearted giraffe as her guide, Margarita travels between her silent world in New York City and the exotic world of the African plains. On her way to discover the source of her trauma, she learns to fly with a mischievous bird named Keechee and swims to the bottom of the sea with Ella, the oldest fish in the world. Part contemporary literary novel and part supernatural fantasy, The Zoo is an exploration of a girl's awakening to a world that is filled with both brutality and beauty.