Great little story

8 Class Pets+1 Squirrel/1Dog=CHAOS by Vivian Vande Velde is a rollicking chase through the biggest mystery to a kid....what do school pets do at night?  This quick little read begins innocently enough with the school-yard squirrel running for his life from a maurading owl.  In the coure of his mad dash he accidently runs over the dog next door, who must, of course, join the chase.  The squirrel escapes the owl by dasing into an open door of the school.  Told from the point of view of various animals....the squirrel, a rabbit, a hamster, fish and even a macaw, the mad dash of the squirrel, who is more naughty than panicked, ends in a huge mess!  Each chapter picks up as the squirrel romps through the classrooms with the poor dog chasing it. Luckily, all ends well thanks to the cleverness of these school pets.  Great fun!

Gross, exciting, engaging........

Belly Up by Stuart Gibbs is funny, exciting and even informative.  I was immediately engaged (and grossed out), and it kept me guessing until the end.

12-year-old  Teddy has led a adeventurous life.  As the son of a famous gorilla researcher mother and wildlife photographer father, Teddy has lived in wild places all over the world.  How could he guess that one of his biggest adventures would happen at the first "real" job his parents had accepted?  He is getting to live every kid's dream...being a full-time resident at FunJungle, an amazing destination zoo that is like Disney, only with animals.  His mother has accepted a position as an animal expert and Teddy gets to spend the summer with the run of the park.  Only, after a while, the fun wears a little thin.  

Then Henry, is found dead.  Henry is the bad-tempered hippo who is the mascot of the park, and who likes shooting the crowds with hippo poo.  Many weren't really sad to see him go, however, no one suspects that it could be murder.   After Teddy sneaks into the autopsy, he begins to suspect just that. But who would want to kill a hippo, even a rotten-tempered one?  He ends up with an unlikely ally, Summer, the celebrity daughter of the billionaire park owner.

Their search for the solution leads them on many adventures...some gross, some life-threatening.  Teddy begins to realize that he has no idea who he can trust, but the death of Henry leads to much larger secrets.