Skip to main content

Belly Up

Image
By Lauren

Belly Up
By Stuart Gibbs
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2010. 294 pages. Fiction.

I admit it, I totally judge a book by its cover. In this case, I was not disappointed- it is as fun and intriguing and the cover promises. 12 year old Teddy lives with his photographer dad and monkey scientist mom on the property of Funjungle, the world's biggest amusement park and zoo in Texas. The book starts right off with Teddy's grand adventure- Henry the Hippo is found floating belly up in his pond. Henry is a key player here, because he was essentially the zoo's mascot, like Shamu is for Sea World. Although beloved by outsiders, he was extremely cranky and loathed by the zoo's employees. Author Stuart Gibbs offers hilarious descriptions of Henry's mischief, such as his habit of shooting "streams of feces" at whoever is nearby. Teddy believes that Henry was murdered, and sets off on a wildly fun whodunit investigation.

In case your gross-o-meter didn't perk up at "streams of feces," I have to warn readers that this book is pretty disgusting at times. Boys will love it. This is a fast-paced adventure story with incredible attention to detail. Stuart Gibbs' experience with working in a zoo pays off well. This is a great mystery novel for 5th grade and up. A warning for sensitive parents: there is some mild language. It's unfortunate, because this could have been a great pick for younger readers. Belly Up also has a great message about respecting animals and their habitats.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: The Factory

By
The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: Blood in the Water

By
Blood in the Water By Tiffany D. Jackson New York: Scholastic, 2025. Fiction. 255 pages. 12-year-old Kaylani McKinnon can't help but feel like a fish out of water. She's a Brooklyn girl spending her summer on Martha's Vineyard surrounded by wealthy family friends in their mansion. All she really wants is to stay home all summer where she her incarcerated father can easily reach her, and she can keep working to find ways to prove him innocent of fraud and embezzlement. Despite her protests, she finds herself on the island with the snooty granddaughters of her host. Soon after Kaylani's arrival, a popular teen boy is found murdered and she decides to conduct her own investigation. As she tries to discover what happened to Chadwick Cooper, Kaylani finds that not everything on Martha's Vineyard is as perfect as it appears. Thrillers for middle grade readers can be hard to find, but Tiffany D. Jackson succeeds in her first middle grade novel. A quick moving plot, tight d...
Post a Comment
Read more

National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry

By DeeDee
National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry Edited by J. Patrick Lewis National Geographic, 2012, 183 p. Poetry In this beautiful poetry collection, the National Children's Poet Laureate, J. Patrick Lewis, has teamed up with the amazing photographers at National Geographic. The result is 200 poems about animals, all illustrated with stunning nature photography.  The poems are well chosen and include rhyming, free verse, and shape poetry. Some of the poems are funny, many are contemplative and all are nicely typeset on top of the full color photographs. One of my favorites is a shape poem about flamingos, with a photograph of a flock of flamingos which seem to be standing the the shape of a flamingo (how did they do that?).  Lewis ends the collection with a brief but interesting section about writing animal poetry.  This selection is sure to turn any animal lover into a poetry lover.
Post a Comment
Read more