What's the story behind the world's first zoo? Isabel Charman joins us to talk about the

founding of the London Zoological Society and her new book, Appropriately Titled the Zoo.

Why did children like to read scary stories? RL Stein, our guest this week,

knows something about that. He'll join us to talk about his long-running Goosebumps series

and what horror means to young readers. The reader has to know that what's happening in the book

is a fantasy, so I keep out all the real world stuff. I keep out any real world problems a kid might have.

Alexander Altair will give us an update from the literary world. Plus, my colleagues and I will

talk about what we're reading. This is Inside the New York Times Book Review. I'm Pamela Paul.

Isabel Charman joins us now. She is the author of a new book called The Zoo,

the Wild and Wonderful Tale of the founding of London Zoo, 1826 to 1851. Isabel, thanks for being here.

Thanks for having me. So you're usually a TV producer. What made you decide to want to write this

as a book? It's a level of detail you can go into in a book. I work in documentaries normally and

some factual drama, which I love, but I think in a book it really gives you a chance to explore

ideas and characters in a different way to what you can do on screen. I think it was

some stories you come across, you think that'll be great as a documentary or as a series.

I think this one I really wanted to write it as a book because I thought the opportunities

it would allow me to really get inside this world and inside people's minds I suppose because

it's very much a history of ideas and I think being able to get into people's interior

mind, you know, a book allows you to do that in a way perhaps a documentary doesn't.

How did you get interested in the subject of The Zoo? Initially, sort of on a superficial level,

it's because it's just an extraordinary story. You know, I think this is an era in the 1820s,

an era a century before any kind of real air travel. It's a decade before railway travel.

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