Mary Anne and the Zoo Mystery

The Baby-Sitters Club Mysteries #20

by Ann M. Martin

School at the zoo? Totally wild! The Baby-sitters can't wait to start on their animal observation projects for science class - because they get to work at the Bedford Zoo!

Genres: Middle Grade, Mystery, Childrens, Fiction, Young Adult, Friendship, Collections

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Ann Matthews Martin was born on August 12, 1955. She grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, with her parents and her younger sister, Jane. After graduating from Smith College, Ann became a teacher and then an editor of children's books. She's now a full-time writer.

Ann gets the ideas for her books from many different places. Some are based on personal experiences, while others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are written about contemporary problems or events. All of Ann's characters, even the members of the Baby-sitters Club, are made up. But many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes Ann names her characters after people she knows, and other times she simply chooses names that she likes.

Ann has always enjoyed writing. Even before she was old enough to write, she would dictate stories to her mother to write down for her. Some of her favorite authors at that time were Lewis Carroll, P. L. Travers, Hugh Lofting, Astrid Lindgren, and Roald Dahl. They inspired her to become a writer herself.

Since ending the BSC series in 2000, Ann’s writing has concentrated on single novels, many of which are set in the 1960s.

After living in New York City for many years, Ann moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York where she now lives with her dog, Sadie, and her cats, Gussie, Willy and Woody. Her hobbies are reading, sewing, and needlework. Her favorite thing to do is to make clothes for children.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/annmma...

Reviews

[FIND ME ON STORYGRAPH · Rating 2 out of 5]

in this FIRST EVER NON-Ellen Miles-PENNED MYSTERY (written by my least favorite ghostwriters, Jahnna Beecham and Malcolm Hillgartner) the 8th graders at sms are assigned to groups for a project studying animals (/a contest -- the group with the best project wins tickets to a seaworld-like place). most kids choose to study animals at the zoo, notably the gorillas visiting from another zoo, one of whom knows ASL. animal cages at the zoo keep being found open, with animals occasionally escaping. turns out that it's the zoo's second-in-command doing it in an attempt to make the head of the zoo look bad (she was an external hire and he thought he should've been given that job instead. plus, in a subtexty way, he's a dude and doesn't think women should be in charge). also mary anne is partnered in the assignment with alan gray, who keeps competing with logan, and mary anne is just SO SENSITIVE that she can't deal with them not getting along. meanwhile, there is an elephant living in a mall or something and there's a campaign to have him transferred to a zoo (sort of like the human side of The One and Only Ivan/the true story it's based on). the bsc have a whole free babar campaign including an "elephant walk" to raise funds. it works, and babar ends up getting sent to a zoo in florida.

highlights:
-this is both a highlight and a lowlight (you will see it expressed differently in each section). this book is FULL of potential evidence and red herringy plot points. there are a few very obvious twists, but even after you figure them out they are still red herrings.
-at one point they go to charlotte's house and find stacey there babysitting her. I LOVE this. stacey is tough as nails, and kristy of course freaks out about not being in control of everything/not having a complete monopoly on all babysitting in stoneybrook.
-one of the potential suspects is a couple of people going around in matching jumpsuits talking about the cost of various animals and using their latin names. turns out they're helping some "eccentric tycoon" (their words, not mine) set up a zoo on his estate (don't ask me why the protesters aren't protesting that instead of the public zoo). anyway, I'm picturing this:

-alexander kurtzman wins the contest! claud is upset because he's so uncreative, "I mean...he carries that briefcase..." I love a good ol' alexander kurtzman reference, because all I know about him is he's the only 8th grader who carries a briefcase instead of a backpack.

lowlights:
-the red herrings I spoke about in the highlights are mostly just loose ends or pointless plot points that don't serve a real purpose. the info keys the kids get that look exactly like the staff keys to the cages SHOULD have meant somebody stole somebody's key, but really it was a staff member opening cages in the first place. the gorilla who knew ASL SHOULD have meant that matt braddock communicated with her and was able to solve the mystery that way, but the gorilla only kept signing the sign for food. it's as though jahnna and malcolm were told that a mystery has a lot of plot points to throw you off, but they've never actually read a mystery to know that those plot points have to actually contribute, be interesting, be complex, be SOMETHING.
-there are all these people protesting the zoo (another red herring). meanwhile babar the elephant is being kept in like a mall or something in an enclosure that bears no resemblance to his home. who are these idiots protesting a zoo when there is something OBVIOUSLY worse going on? sounds like the work of peta
-all the students get info keys which are replicas of the zoo keys used to enter the animal cages. this is COMPLETELY IDIOTIC, and OF COURSE will lead to the keys getting swapped. come ON.
-gorilla signs that she knows who let the emu out of its cage but then signs food. reading this, I wondered if the person's name sign was similar to food or if it was mr. chester (the second in command guy at the zoo) because he feeds them? turns out it WAS mr. chester letting animals out, but he hadn't been the one who let the emu out (it was howie, mary anne's project partner, being a total idiot). huh? this could've been such a cool plot point but they spoiled it.
-they need to borrow a boom box for the elephant walk but only stacey has a good one. claud says that they can't call her because they aren't speaking to her. really? claud is gonna be that petty and dumb?
-they end up asking becca to ask charlotte to ask stacey (and I need to remind myself that the bsc members are CHILDREN), so she says yes but then insists on bringing it herself. kristy is grumpy about her being there. I hate these bratty teenagers so much sometimes.
-mr. chester is trying to let the gorillas out but then they grab him. turns out it was two guys who worked at the zoo in gorilla costumes. HUH? I'm pretty sure people in gorilla costumes don't look like gorillas. I mean, that's what the kids in the hall taught me at least.

dawn outfit:
-"Moments later she appeared dressed in a pair of jeans, a purple-and-white cotton baseball jersey, and a purple sun visor."

snacks in claudia's room:
-pretzels (n.s.)
-oreos in a shoebox

[V. Arrow · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the most consistently impressive aspects of the BSC franchise is how intense the story bible must have been. I mean, every detail is always consistent, and given how many ghostwriters the series had over the years, that is SO impressive.

[Dee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hi Jack and Tanner!

This book has great words. I recommend them to anyone who enjoys words on paper. No smiles for Miles but there is a gorilla so it all evens out in the end.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an awkward book, but I love any BSC books that give us different settings (hello, Bedford Zoo!), have the BSC members paired up with non-Club members (yassss Alan, and Howie), and I just love zoos in general. That said, the story wasn't great. I was tired of hearing about Alan and Logan's competition, I honestly don't remember what shenanigans Howie was up to (just that he lied about watching the bears sleeping in the trees), and I didn't care about the mystery or the conclusion.

That said, I really liked all the parts with Stacey. I loved when they went to Charlotte's house and Stacey was baby-sitting, I loved that they needed to play "telephone" to ask Stacey to use her tape deck for the walk. And I love that they still mention her in chapter two, despite her currently not being in the Club. I love the continuity!

[Ciara · Rating 2 out of 5]

if you can believe it, this is YET ANOTHER babysitters club book in which the plot hinges on a ludicrously complex & unrealistic class assignment. this time, all the eighth graders at stoneybrook middle school are broken into teams of three & assigned to observe an animal for three weeks. at the end of the observation period, they have to compile their findings about hat the animals do, eat, look like, etc etc, & write them up into a report. absolutely no outside materials are permitted to augment the reports. the reports have to be based solely on observation. which seems like the crappiest assignment ever. most american kids entering college have no fucking clue how to write a research paper, & dumbass assignments like this aren't going to teach them. anyway, to facilitate the kids' observations, the school has partnered with the bedford zoo. school buses will be waiting after school every day to ferry the kids to the zoo to observe the animals of their choice. the zoo trips are voluntary. if a team doesn't want to study a zoo animal, they can study other animals to which they have access, such as their pets. this is what kristy's team decides to do, since kristy & stacey are on the same team, but they're not speaking since stacey quit/was fired from the BSC, & kristy can't face riding on the school bus every day after school with stacey.

mary anne is teamed with alan gray & howie johnson. it's worth noting that the "winning team" (the team with the best report, i guess) wins extra credit in science class. both alan & howie are poor students who really want that extra credit. but logan overhears them bragging about how they're going to win, & he challenges alan. logan & alan start scrapping & sniping at each other at every opportunity, which is really annoying for mary anne because it just makes alan act like even more of a jerk. she thinks several times about bringing it up with logan & asking him to lay off, but she keeps chickening out. because she totally sucks.

anyway, the bedford zoo has two gorilla on loan from the san diego zoo for a few weeks. the female gorilla, mojo, can communicate with sign language. everyone wants to observe the gorillas because they think they'll be able to ask mojo questions via sign language & pad their reports that way. mary anne's team decides to branch out. they come out with a "feathers, fur, & flippers" theme. mary anne observes the emus, alan observes the seals, & howie observes some bears (species not specified).

yes, it's as boring as it sounds.

on the first trip to the zoo, the eighth graders are confronted by angry zoo protesters who want the animals to be set free to live their wild lives or something. they all seem really freaked out by the protesters, even though dawn, of course, is inclined to agree with them. then they notice that the zoo director, mrs. wofesy, doesn't seem to get along too well with another zoo employee named mr. chester. then they notice a strange couple wandering around in matching sweatsuits, taking all kinds of notes on the animals. & then the animals start escaping from their cages.

the first animal to escape is the emu. luckily, it's pretty docile & workers have no problem herding it back into its enclosure. but then a giraffe escapes. that's scarier because if it gets spooked, it could start trampling everyone. luckily, it too is returned to its enclosure with no problems. then someone leave the door to the gibbon cage open. but no gibbons escape because they're busy eating lunch. when the gibbons escape, mr. chester makes a big to-do about it in front of a crowd. shortly thereafter, mary anne realizes that she is in possession of an official zoo master key that fits all the cage locks. she knows it belongs to mrs. wofesy because she overheard mrs. wofesy talking about how she lost her key. all the eighth graders have been given keys that look just like the master zoo keys. the eighth graders' keys can be used to listen to the informational kiosks outside each animal enclosure. which seems not so smart, to make the guest keys look like the official keys. anyway, mary anne realizes that mrs. wofesy's key must have been picked up by either alan or howie, who proceeded to release the animals.

she confronts alan first & he denies it. together, they confront howie, who admits to releasing the emu on accident. he was trying to get closer to it to make better observations, but then panicked & left the enclosure & forgot to close the gate behind him. because he's an idiot. but he denies opening the other cages. he'd misplaced the key (when mary anne picked it up) & didn't even have it when the other animals were released.

mary anne realizes that whoever is releasing the animals must be a zoo employee with access to their own key. some deus ex machina happens & she realizes that mr. chester is the culprit. he's releasing the animals to make mrs. wofesy look bad because he thinks he could have gotten the zoo director job. she tells mrs. wofesy her suspicions & together they arrange a sting operation. they think he's going to release the gorillas next, so mrs. wofesy has some zoo employees dress up in gorilla outfits & hang out in the gorilla cage. the real gorillas are moved to an undisclosed location. the babysitters dress up in disguises & hang around where they think they might see mr. chester acting suspicious. it works. mallory sees him go into a locker room & come back out wearing a plant crew uniform. claudia sees him hop in a golf cart & trundle over to the primate enclosure. alan sees him sneak around to the back of the gorilla cage. mr. chester frees to guys in gorilla outfits, who then tackle him & bring him to justice. all the kids that helped with the sting are given free passes to the zoo for life.

in the end, the class nerd wins the extra credit for his team report on lions.

basically, this book made very little sense & was just a collection of tedious plot devices. the babysitters club is going downhill fast.

[Sayo -bibliotequeish-]

The BSC mystery books were the best. I would walk down the street so passer-by's would see I was old enough to read mystery books.

As a kid my best friends sister had the whole BSC series on a book shelf in her room. I thought she was so grown up. And I envied this bookshelf. And would often poke my head into that room just to look at it.
And when I read BSC, I felt like such a grown up.
And while I might have still been a little too young to understand some of the issues dealt with in these books, I do appreciated that Ann M. Martin tackled age appropriate issues, some being deeper than others, but still important.

[Devon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sometimes the mysteries are fun because they're so ridiculous, and sometimes they're so ridiculous they're not fun. This one fell far to the latter end, and only gets two stars because of the BSC drama between the other girls and Stacey--how hilarious is it that Kristy is mad at her for still babysitting a kid who likes her way more than any of the other BSC members? Also, a few bonus points for somewhat making Alan Gray likable. If this hadn't been a Mary Anne book, and had also been...well, a more competently written mystery, it might've actually been decent.

[Samantha · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would really like to pretend that it is ridiculous for an 8th grade class to do a project assignment at the zoo....but I went to a school where we went to theme parks to study physics, so I would be lying about that. I have done way stupider shit in the name of school.

The rest of the plot, however, is like another poorly written episode of Scooby Doo. Where did they come up with some of this stuff!?

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t know why I love this one so much, but I do.

However, why didn’t my school ever do awesome projects like bringing us to the zoo everyday to observe animals!? Sometimes I’m really jealous of these (fictitious) classes that these (fictitious) girls get to take.

[Lianna Kendig · Rating 3 out of 5]

(LL)
This was extremely predictable, but it was a decent story. It’s unrealistic that an entire eight grade class would get to go to the zoo every day for like two weeks for one class, but oh well. These “short takes” types of scenarios are the usual for the BSC mysteries.

[Amanda · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is, hands down, the worst written BSC book I've read. It's not like any of these are literary masterpieces, but this is terribly paced, oddly disjointed, and doesn't match Mary Anne's "voice" whatsoever.

[Christina]

Read my recap at A Year with the BSC via Stoneybrook Forever: https://www.livethemovies.com/bsc-blo...

[JH · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was just ok. It was interesting to see Mary Anne interact with other classmates on a school project. I could see the solution to the mystery coming from a mile away, but it was sort of creative. Enjoyed hanging with the girls, especially for the elephant walk!

[Jaclyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The mystery takes a while to get going, and the villain was pretty obvious, but I like all the animal stuff.

[Christy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was super okay! I'm glad I'm getting through my stack.

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wait. This adult enlists children, who are supposed to be working on a school project, to spy on her professional colleague?

[Leigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

These mysteries are dull. You'd think they could liven them up but with the exception of 2 or 3 they are all just hard to get into. On yet another big school project the kids of SMS are told to observe an animal and write about its habits etc. There are two gorillas on loan from the zoo so most of the kids go there while some observe pets. Kristy makes a big deal about being in a group with Stacey so this must be the time she left the club. While at the zoo they see someone is letting animals out of their cages which is where our mystery comes in. The b plot involves an elephant originally named Babar who is being penned up at the mall and the fundraising to free Babar. Again all very pointless even the dullest original series books are more interesting than most of these mysteries.

[Melenia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved these books as a child