Bryan Chick

Bryan Chick was nine when visits to the Detroit zoo made him wonder whether hidden doors could let children enter the exhibits and animals leave them. That idea became The Secret Zoo, first published by his own Second Wish Press in 2007; Greenwillow, a HarperCollins imprint, issued a new edition in June 2010. It starts in the invented town of Clarksville, where Noah Nowicki, his sister Megan and their friends Richie and Ella get behind the enclosures into a world where people and animals live as equals. Five more books followed, ending with The Final Fight in 2023, and by Chick's own account the series has sold close to a million copies. He lives in Clarkston, Michigan with his wife and four children, and in 2024 started two further series, The Super Sports Society and Wayfinders.