Thursday, August 21, 2014

Poached by Stuart Gibbs


ISBN-10: 1442467770 - Hardcover $15.99
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers; 1ST edition (April 8, 2014), 336 pages.
Review copy courtesy of the publisher and the Amazon Vine Reviewers Program.

The blurb:
Kazoo the Koala is missing!  And Teddy Fitzroy is the primary suspect.  The only way Teddy can clear his name is to crack the case and bring Kazoo back home to Funjungle where he belongs, all while steering clear of Vance the bully. Otherwise, Teddy will be shipped off to juvie as a convicted koala-napper.

Review:
I wish Stuart Gibbs's books had been around when I was growing up.

Teddy Fitzroy lives with his parents in FunJungle, a commercial zoo and amusement park. His mother is a biologist who works with primates and his father is a wild animal photographer. Teddy's in the local public middle school and often finds himself bullied. One awful day, he's forced to prank FunJungle and drop body parts in the shark tank. He later finds himself accused of the larger crime of having made away with the zoo's single koala bear. The animal is on a 6 month loan to FunJungle and its disappearance is dangerous both for Teddy and the koala.

FunJungle's head of security, Madge, has fixated on Teddy as the main culprit. The only way that he'll be able to clear his name is if he finds the actual thief.

Set amidst wild animals in a zoo and told from 12-year old Teddy's point of view, Poached is a fun, mad caper.

About the Author:
A few interesting things that Stuart Gibbs has done:
Worked at a zoo;   Researched capybaras (the world's largest rodents); Climbed Mount Kilimanjaro; Faced down a charging elephant; Ice-climbed a glacier in Patagonia; Visited the cockpit of the Space Shuttle Atlantis; Helped rescue sixteen children from drowning off the coast of Israel; Written a few movies that actually got made (See Spot Run; Repli-Kate; Showdown); Worked on a few animated movies (Anastasia; Open Season 3; Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers).

He is currently at work on some more books. "Space Case," a mystery set on the first moon base, will be out in September 2014. "Evil Spy School" will be out in spring, 2015. And the third book in the FunJungle series will be out some time in 2015.

You can learn more about what Stuart is up to at www.stuartgibbs.com