I recently read Belly Up by Stuart Gibbs. I think the book is called Belly Up because when the hippo died, his belly went up. The main character’s name is Teddy Fitzroy who is twelve years old, mischievous and smart. The story takes place at a big zoo called Funjungle which has a mascot named Henry the Hippo. The main problem of the story is that Henry the Hippo suddenly dies, and Teddy tries to figure out who killed the hippopotamus or how he died. The plot is complicated. The action moves around a lot because there is so much going on in the book. Many things pop up in your face as you read the book to make you keep reading.

As you read the book, it might not make sense immediately, so you have to be patient to to understand the story. Funjungle is a big zoo that has unique areas for different kinds of animals. For example, there is Hippo River, Reptile World and Carnivore Canyon (not open yet). Teddy has to go through all these areas to find evidence of how the hippopotamus died. When Teddy is in Reptile World, he searches for clues and someone sets out a poisonous snake to scare him off. For example, on page 122 the book says, “I rounded a stand of fake trees and something lunged at me.” They did this to make sure that Teddy didn’t get any information about the person who killed Henry the Hippo. When a girl named Summer Mcracken (the park owner’s daughter) comes into the story, she becomes friends with Teddy and wants to find out more about the death of Henry. Because she’s the park owner’s daughter, she has the power to help Teddy get into places that will give him more clues. This will eventually lead him to who killed Henry the Hippo.

The first reason I like the book is because of the mystery. My favorite part of the book is when Teddy sneaks into the autopsy, (it means to cut an animal open and see how it died.) He almost gets caught by the two sneaky characters, Doc and Martin (who is the businessman,) who are doing the autopsy. The second reason I like the book is because it’s humorous. For example, once Teddy and Summer go swimming in the hippo pool full of poop. Finally, I like all the characters because they all have different personalities. Summer is funny and Teddy is mischievous. For example, Teddy gave the monkeys water balloons and the monkeys threw them at tourists.

I liked this book and rate it 4½ stars out of 5 stars. I really liked this book because I was constantly asking myself what was going to happen next. Will Teddy also go belly up?