52 pages • 1 hour read
Stuart GibbsBelly Up
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2010A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 5-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary: “The Girl in Pink”
The next morning, Teddy finds a footprint outside his trailer. He suspects it was made by a dress shoe and the person who left it heard him talking to the police. This discovery only increases Teddy’s determination to find Henry’s killer. On his way into the park, he passes a group of protesters who belong to the Animal Liberation Front. The ALF believes zoos are prisons, but Teddy knows zoos do important work to combat extinction and inspire people to care about animals. Henry’s enclosure is barricaded and guarded, preventing Teddy and the many visitors who come to mourn the animal from getting a good look at the area.
Summer McCracken comes to the zoo, and an excited mob clusters around her. Teddy approaches her in the hope that she could help him talk to her father about Henry’s murder. However, he stares at her “like a dork” when he comes face to face with the blond-haired, blue-eyed girl (79). He whispers, “Henry Hippo was murdered” (80). She gives him a bemused look and continues on. Embarrassed, Teddy resumes his investigation. He realizes the level of security around Henry’s empty enclosure is suspicious. Summer sneaks away from her bodyguards, disguises herself, and tells Teddy to meet her behind one of the park’s restaurants.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Diving In”
Summer meets Teddy in a covert spot behind some dumpsters, and he explains what he knows about Henry. He expected her to be conceited and is pleasantly surprised she is curious and friendly since he rarely bonds with his peers. Summer frequently evades her bodyguards by going into women’s restrooms and trading clothes with other girls. She dresses in pink from head to toe so the guards don’t immediately recognize her in other colors. Summer uses her father’s private security code to allow her and Teddy to sneak into the Hippo River enclosure. Summer and Teddy put on the swim masks and breathing apparatuses used by the hippos’ keepers and begin to search the pools for whatever killed Henry. Teddy locates a strange metal groove at the bottom of a pool and wonders what its purpose could be. Summer finds a playing jack purposely sharpened into “a small metal ball with six barbs sticking out of it” (98). The zoo’s only remaining hippo, Hildegard, glares at the children through the mesh wall dividing the enclosure, and they decide to leave the pool rather than risk her attacking them.
Chapter 7 Summary: “The Jack”
After taking very long showers, Summer and Teddy go to the park’s biggest souvenir shop. In the toy aisle, they find jacks that match the one in Henry’s pool. Summer explains the killer could have easily shoplifted the jacks, filed them to points, and hidden them in food. She says, “Although there is one thing we know about the killer…” (103), but is interrupted by the arrival of her bodyguards. They reprimand her and roughly grab Teddy. She comes to his defense: “Maybe my dad should know you’re terrorizing his employees’ children just because you’re annoyed I gave you the slip again” (104). Still, the guards say they’ll keep an eye out for Teddy from now on. As the bodyguards escort her away, Summer drops the sharpened jack so Teddy can keep it safe.
Teddy goes to see Doc at the animal hospital, and he gets past the kindly receptionist by claiming his mother sent him to deliver a sample from an ill gorilla. He hears Doc talking to someone in an operating room and shows the worried veterinarian the sharpened jack. Doc is taken aback that Teddy knows Henry was murdered, pockets the weapon, and tells the boy to leave before he calls security. Doc returns to the operating room, and Teddy catches a glimpse of a dead jaguar. The boy is so disappointed and shaken by his interaction with Doc that it takes him a moment to remember there are no jaguars on view at FunJungle.
Chapter 8 Summary: “Black Mamba”
FunJungle plans to include jaguars in its Carnivore Canyon area, which will be unveiled in a few days. Teddy’s mother told him the jaguars did not arrive yet at the zoo, and he wonders how a dead jaguar ended up in Doc’s operating room. He considers telling his mother about his investigation into Henry’s death but decides not to because he thinks she’ll be angry with him. Teddy receives a text message: “Meet me at World of Reptiles. Black mamba exhibit. 7PM. Summer” (115). He didn’t exchange phone numbers with Summer but decides she could have found this information easily. He admits to himself the message makes him excited, not only because she may have a lead for their case but also because he wants to see her again.
Teddy makes his way through the closed park to World of Reptiles, which houses a wide array of venomous snakes as well as many other animals, including “rare alligator relatives like caimans and gavials, snapping turtles, frilled dragons, basilisks, water monitors, and even a Komodo dragon” (118). Tourists are usually more excited to see the animatronic dinosaurs near the building’s exit than its reptilian residents, which Teddy thinks is absurd because dinosaurs were not reptiles. He waits for Summer at the black mamba exhibit, the deadliest snake in the world. As he ponders why she would choose this location for their meeting, he notices someone cut through the exhibit’s glass wall. The black mamba could be hiding anywhere in World of Reptiles, and a terrified Teddy sprints out of the building. He realizes he was set up by Henry’s killer and this person will do anything to stop him from investigating the hippo’s death.
Chapters 5-8 Analysis
In the novel’s second section, Teddy begins his investigation into Henry’s death and gains a valuable ally, with both of them demonstrating the quality of their inner characters. Chapter 5 raises the suspense and develops the theme of Bravery and Perseverance as Aids Against Greed when he continues to seek the truth even though someone is spying on him. Teddy discovers a footprint, which is a classic clue used in mystery fiction: “The print was a neat half circle, as though from the heel of a dress shoe” (71). The author uses the footprint to make the reader suspect Martin is the culprit because he wears suits. Later, it’s revealed the print was actually left by Buck’s cowboy boot. Amid this danger, Teddy must use his bravery to combat greed and challenge it.
Teddy’s partnership with Summer marks a major development for the plot and cast of characters and shows her as possessing similar traits to him. Although he protests that he doesn’t understand why people treat her like a star, his narration makes it clear that he has a crush on the celebrity: Her eyes “were an amazingly bright blue, like the wings of a morpho butterfly. The pictures of her never did them justice” (79). Summer contributes to the theme of resourcefulness by getting away from her bodyguards and stealthily navigating the park. Even her trademark pink wardrobe is a clever strategy that makes it easier for her to evade her security detail. Summer gives the protagonist the help he needs to continue his investigation, and the secret key code she uses to sneak her and Teddy into the hippo enclosure symbolizes her privilege. Although she has access and privilege in some ways, her freedom is restricted in others, however. Teddy realizes the downsides of being Summer McCracken when her bodyguards escort her away in Chapter 7: “Up until that point, I had envied Summer, thinking she probably had the coolest life in the world. But as of then, I knew I wouldn’t ever trade places with her. Not for a billion dollars” (104). Like Teddy, Summer is adventurous, curious, and clever, but her autonomy is limited by near-constant supervision and scrutiny. She demonstrates her own inner qualities, however, and these, too, will be used as tools against combatting the greed within the zoo.
As the investigation into Henry’s death progresses, Teddy uncovers clues that there are other mysteries afoot at FunJungle, highlighting the greed pervasive throughout the zoo. In Chapter 6, Teddy notices an odd metal groove at the bottom of the pool. The groove’s significance is unclear at present, but it’s later revealed to be part of a plot even more insidious than Henry’s murder. In this same chapter, Summer finds the murder weapon: “It was a small metal ball with six barbs sticking out of it: north, south, east, west, top, and bottom. Some of the barbs had been filed to sharp points” (98). The discovery of the sharpened jack is a major milestone for the mystery because it proves Henry was murdered. Throughout the novel, merchandise serves as a motif of the theme of The Purposes of Environmental Ethics Versus Greed. The weapon is an instance of the motif because the killer obtains the jack at one of the park’s souvenir shops and because Henry’s murder is motivated by greed. In Chapter 7, Teddy exercises his resourcefulness and a clever lie to see Doc at the hospital, but he finds more questions than answers. Doc’s anxiety and the dead jaguar show that the secrets at FunJungle go beyond Henry’s death. The unethical characters exploit the lives of the animals by turning them into vessels of merchandise; this extends further when they are vessels even of jewels and merchandise must be used to retrieve the stones.
The plot and suspense escalate further in Chapter 8 when Teddy finds his life in peril for the first time and the importance of bravery is emphasized. Teddy’s narration is full of facts about animals, and they become terrifyingly relevant in the case of the black mamba: “Most poisonous snakes prefer to hide from humans, biting only as a last defense. If a mamba feels threatened, it’ll come after you. And they’re fast. Thus, they’ve killed more people than any other kind of snake” (118). The mamba’s release reveals Henry’s murderer knows Summer and Teddy are investigating the hippo’s death, but it’s unclear if the culprit intended to kill the boy or merely scare him. As the story’s second section draws to a close, the reader wonders if Teddy’s parents and Summer may also be in danger and what else the killer is willing to do to keep the young detective from finding the truth. Teddy must summon his reservoirs of courage to combat this corruption as the situation becomes more dangerous. His bravery and perseverance will be his tools against the greed.
Related Titles
By Stuart Gibbs
