Denise Ouellette of Gloucester has won a bronze Honorable Mention Kops-Fetterling International Book Award in the 8-12 year age category for her second children’s book, “Zoo at School.”

In “Zoo at School,” a teenager moves to a small town in 1970s Texas and meets a Native American family that owns a small zoo. Their first encounter occurs when her horse is frightened by a lion as she rides through the countryside. The wide-ranging plot includes a crooked mayor who wants the family’s farm, a plot to exterminate the zoo animals, and a trail ride across the country with lions and tigers and chimpanzees rather than cattle.

Ouellette’s first children’s book, “The Lost Gold Mine,” is about two boys, Ty and Jake, who go on a family vacation on a ranch in Arizona and find out there’s a gold mine someplace nearby that’s been lost for 100 years. The boys set out to find the gold mine with the help of their family. The main characters are named after two of Ouellette’s grandsons.

While ...