Terri Irwin - Steve & Me: Life With the Crocodile Hunter Review

The book opens with their first meeting in October, 1991.  Terri, then 27, was in Australia on a quest to find homes for rescued American cougars.  Obviously, a place called the Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park did not seem like a good candidate for her cougars.  Upon entering the park she noticed the cleanliness of the enclosures and the relative freedom of the animals therein.  She noticed the crocodiles before Steve, but after meeting Steve, it was all over for her.  That day, they spent a long time talking and she came to appreciate his passion for crocodiles and other animals.  Shortly thereafter, she returned for a weekend.  The weekend would change both Terri and Steve's lives forever.

Terri then backtracks to fill in the details of her life prior to meeting Steve, especially how she became involved in cougar rescues.  Steve returned to Terri's life that Thanksgiving in 1991 when he came to Oregon to visit her and her family.  After that, Terri returned to Australia in January, 1992.  At this point, she actually went out into the bush with Steve to survey crocodiles prior to dams being erected on the Burdekin River.  Following the trip, Steve proposed to Terri and she accepted.  The Irwins were married on June 4, 1992.

Instead of a normal honeymoon, Steve received a call about a large crocodile venturing too close to civilization.  Someone had been shooting at it.  A documentary film-maker, John Stainton, contacted Steve about the animal and asked him if he wanted to relocate the crocodile.  He also wanted to film Steve in action.  John and Steve had met in the late 1980s when Steve would help filming commercials that used reptiles.  Following a commercial involving a crocodile in 1990, Steve gave John a stack of VHS tapes that Steve had filmed.  These tapes and John's filming eventually lead to The Crocodile Hunter on Animal Planet and to Steve and Terri's eventual world-wide fame.

The memoir continues through many of their adventures, both in the bush and with corporate America and Hollywood.  Included in their adventures is the birth of their daughter, Bindi in 1998 and son, Robert in 2003.  Terri also discusses the controversies stirred up by Steve carrying Robert while feeding the crocodiles at the Zoo and Steve's interaction with animals in Antarctica.  The book concludes with the details of Steve's tragic death and how Terri and her children continue to try and live Steve's dream of teaching others about animals and continuing conservation efforts world-wide.

The book is a wonderful glimpse into a man who, although known world-wide, wasn't really known.  Teri tells many wonderful stories of their time together.  The reader will clearly come away with a sense of the love and strength they had and felt in each other.  The only negative, and it's not a game-breaker in any sense, is that the book reads somewhat choppily.  Terri conveys her story, but the writing style isn't as smooth as others I've read.  As I said, this isn't really a knock on the book, as I certainly have no expectation that Terri is another Shakespeare, or even Updike.  But, it made the reading a little uneven.  If one is interested in naturalists, wildlife, conservation, or specifically, Steve Irwin, this memoir by his wife will not steer one wrong.