Book description
A painfully shy young boy befriends a homeless baby ferret and gets as much comfort as he gives.
- Coming soon!
Why read it?
1 author picked Zucchini as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Zucchini the ferret, born in the Bronx Zoo, leads a bleak life.
When he learns about the outside world, he yearns to escape—but when he does, it's straight into chaos.
I read Zucchini many times as a child and last read it in my 30s, and it's wonderfully more grimdark than I remember. Published in 1982, the book is 1980's-New-York gritty, and so are the hard adult lessons: fighting for your needs is full of risk; betrayal is common; love, compassion, and understanding are scarce; and idealism has an unsustainable cost.
But this makes the bits of joy that Zucchini…
From KJ's list on starring sentient animals (that not enough people know).
If you love Zucchini...
These Blue Mountains
A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.
German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…
Want books like Zucchini?
Our community of 13,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Zucchini.
Share your top 3 reads of 2025!
And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.
1,395
readers submitted
so far, will you?
📚 If you like Zucchini, you might also like...
Need to Know
The authoritative but accessible history of the birth of modern American intelligence in World War II that treats not just one but all of the various disciplines: spies, codebreakers, saboteurs.
Told in a relatable style that focuses on actual people, it was a New Yorker "Best of 2022" selection and…
Tsunami
On the morning of December 26, 2004, an undersea earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean. The resulting tsunami killed an estimated 230,000 people across fourteen countries, from Indonesia to Sri Lanka to Thailand to the Maldives to India and all the way to East Africa.…
