Thoughts before reading:
I don't think I've ever read this one before, and honestly I have pretty low expectations. The idea behind this sounds terrible, and I'm really tired of the mysteries. To think, I still have 16 of them to go...
The basics:
Mary Anne, Dawn, and Logan go to the movies together, where Mary Anne gets weepy over a poster of an elephant named Babar, who's being exploited at a local shopping center. (Clearly they are out of ideas for the mysteries, and should have stopped here.) They all donate their change, and Mary Anne decides to enlist help from the BSC to fundraise for him.
Meanwhile, a special science project is announced at school for the 8th graders. They will be working in teams to study the behavior of an animal very closely. The school is teaming up with the local zoo, so that students will be able to go there after school to observe the animal of their choice. Mary Anne is dismayed to be on a team with Alan Gray and Howie Johnston, and even more so when Logan and Alan get competitive (the team with the best project wins tickets to Aqua World). Dawn, Logan, and Claudia somehow ended up on a team together. Kristy's upset because Stacey's on her team. (She wants to study dogs so they never have to meet up.)
The BSC decides to have an elephant walk for Babar. Kristy, Mal, and some of their charges make buttons of him to sell around the neighborhood. At the Johanssens', Kristy runs into Stacey, who is sitting for Charlotte and observing Carrot. She's annoyed to find her sitting for a BSC client.
At the zoo, the SMS kids encounter animal rights protestors outside. Inside, they have increased security because of this, and since they have a pair of gorillas on loan from the San Diego Zoo (Mojo and James). Mary Anne's group decides to study seals, emus, and bears, then put everything together in one project.
One Saturday, some of the girls take the Arnold twins to the zoo so they can babysit and work on their project at the same time. They're watching an elephant show when word gets out that the emu has escaped from his enclosure. It's quickly caught, but it turns out the master zoo key is missing, the one that opens all the animal exhibits (Mary Anne overhears it being discussed). Between this and the fact that the emu is too docile to have escaped on its own, the girls decide they have another mystery on their hands. They start observing zoo patrons, and soon notice a couple that seems to always be around, discussing the animals but not seeming to be enjoying themselves. The protestors are also there every day.
A giraffe is let out loose next. At the time it happens, Howie and Alan are acting strangely, and the odd couple is around once again. Mary Anne hears them talking about how much monkeys cost. Later on, that same monkey cage has the gate left open. Thankfully it's feeding time, so none of them bother to escape.
The following week, Mary Anne's confused to discover her student zoo key no longer unlocks the animal information boxes. She realizes it must have somehow been switched with the missing master zoo key, and the only way that could have happened is if it was accidently switched with Alan's when they had both dumped their bags out earlier to look for change. She confronts him, and he denies everything, only admitting that he's been busy cheating by getting emu info from a book. Howie says he actually had the key, but he'd only just found it on the ground and thought it was his student key. He also admits he did accidently open the emu enclosure.
Claudia finds out that the odd couple just work for a tycoon who wants to build his own zoo, and they are helping put together an estimate. With them off the suspect list, the girls realize the true culprit must have their own master key. One of the keepers, Mr. Chester, has been around for each incident. The girls tell Mrs. Wofsey, the keeper who's working with their class. She confirms that Mr. C might be trying to get her in trouble so he can have her job, but unless they catch him in the act, there isn't any way to prove it.
During the farewell party for the gorillas, who are returning to their regular location, the zoo has a "sting" where some employees dress up as the gorillas and catch Mr. C trying to free them. (Yes, really. I wish I was kidding.) Mr. C is fired. Mary Anne and Logan's groups both don't win, but they get A-'s on their projects.
As for the elephant walk, the BSC girls want to use Stacey's tape recorder for their walk-a-thon, but they don't want to ask her, so they ask Charlotte to. Stacey says yes, on the condition that she comes too. They agree, but Kristy refuses to go near her. The event has a big turnout, and every single kid walks the full 4 mile route.
Timeline:
It's spring still, probably around May by now.
Misc. thoughts:
*Dawn tells a story at a BSC meeting about Stacey ignoring her, which I find hard to believe after the last book. It was more likely the other way around.
*From Mary Anne's POV, Stacey left the BSC because she was so attached to Robert that she stopped caring about anything else. That's pretty damn far from what actually happened.
*Yet another scene where Kristy is rude and possessive. She's mad that Stacey's babysitting at all outside the club, especially when it's for a BSC client. What did she expect though? Particularly in the case of Charlotte, whose family Stacey has her own personal bond with. Other people are allowed to babysit too, and Stacey never said she didn't want to at all, just not all the time.
*I used to have a button maker too when I was a kid, and it was around this same time.
*Dawn hates zoos. I do too. They've always made me sad.
*Ghostwritten by Jahnna Beecham and Malcolm Hilgartner.
Books mentioned:
None
My rating:
2 stars. This didn't hold my attention at all. Very slow, very thin on plot, and completely ridiculous.
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