Text copyright © 2020 by Patricia Reilly Giff
Art copyright © 2020 by Abby Carter
All Rights Reserved
HOLIDAY HOUSE is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
www.holidayhouse.com
First Edition
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Giff, Patricia Reilly, author. | Carter, Abby, illustrator.
Title: Meet the crew at the zoo / by Patricia Reilly Giff; illustrated by Abby Carter.
Description: First edition. | New York : Holiday House, [2020]
Series: Mysteries on Zoo Lane; book 1 | Audience: Ages 7 and up.
Audience: Grades 2-3. | Summary: Luke is unhappy about leaving his home and abuelo when his father takes a job at a New York zoo, but soon he has new friends and a mystery to solve. Includes facts about zoo animals and wildlife.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019029201 ISBN 9780823446667 (hardcover)
Subjects: CYAC: Zoos—Fiction. | Moving, Household—Fiction. Family life—Fiction. Friendship—Fiction. | Zoo animals—Fiction.
Mystery and detective stories. | Classification: LCC PZ7.G3626 Mc 2020
DDC [Fic]—dc23 | LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019029201
Hardcover ISBN 9780823446667
Ebook ISBN 9780823448159
a_prh_5.6.0_c0_r0
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
More About Wild Animals
CHAPTER 1
THE plane roared to a stop. Luke’s throat burned. He told himself he was too old to cry.
Dad was talking. “You’ll love this place with its new zoo, Luke. Animals will too.”
Dad waved his arms around. “Their spaces will be large. They’ll look like their homes in the wild. And their food will taste just right.”
Luke tried to nod. The animals might be happy here. But would he?
If only they were back with his abuelo, near the zoo in Florida.
Abuelo had looked so sad when they left.
Dad knew what Luke was thinking. “I’m really sorry. But I’ll be the zoo doctor here.”
Luke wanted to say, you were the zoo doctor in Florida. And I had friends. I had Abuelo.
Dad patted Luke’s arm. “We’re home in New York now.”
“Home,” Mom echoed.
Luke had been born in New York. But he hardly remembered it.
“You may not be happy at first,” Dad said. “But you’ll see.”
Mom put her arms around Luke and his five-year-old sister, Benita, while they waited for their bags.
It was almost night. Luke tried not to yawn.
A taxi came next. It drove them from one street to another.
Luke peered out the window.
The taxi was stopping…at a falling-down house on Zoo Lane.
Blue paint had chipped off the walls.
In Abuelo’s house, the paint stayed where it belonged. A nice green color.
Luke listened to Benita sing as they went up the walk. She was always singing. “This place looks like it might be horrible. At least I think so.”
Luke swallowed. She might be right.
CHAPTER 2
INSIDE, they rushed to the window.
“It’s too dark to see out there,” Benita said.
“We’ll see it tomorrow,” Dad said.
He leaned over Luke’s shoulder. “Aren’t we lucky! The zoo begins in the back of our house. Abuelo would have loved it.”
Luke thought of his grandfather with his white beard and mustache.
Abuelo worked at the Florida zoo. He knew all about giraffes and camels and kangaroos.
He loved tigers too. How worried he looked when he said they were “endangered.”
It was the first time Luke had heard that word. He stumbled over it: “endangered.”
Abuelo had shaken his head. “The wild animals’ forests are farms now, and trees are cut down for wood. But worse is the illegal poaching.”
Luke frowned. Hadn’t he heard those words before? Weren’t they about killing wild animals for fur and feathers, for meat and even medicines?
Abuelo had said, “We need zoos to help. How terrible if the animals were gone.”
“Time for bed,” Mom said.
Bed in this new house!
Luke passed an empty bedroom in the hall. It was dark. Scary.
He could hardly see anything in his room either.
He threw on his pajamas and dived into bed.
The closet door was open.
A place for something to hide!
He’d read about a monster with claws. It was a made-up story for fun.
But still…
In bed, he heard a roar.
“Yeow!” He pulled the quilt over his head. He slid the pillow on top.
He could hardly breathe.
“It’s only a lion,” Benita sang from her bedroom.
Luke crossed his fingers. “I wasn’t afraid.”
Abuelo had said you could hear a lion roar five miles away. But this one was only in the zoo out back.
It was too hot! Luke threw the pillow on the floor and wiggled out from under the quilt.
What about the closet?
He jumped up and slammed the door shut. He dragged a chair in front of it.
Safe!
He went back to bed. What a terrible place this was.
If only he weren’t afraid of the dark.
Did he say it aloud?
“Count the animals,” Benita sang. “You’ll fall asleep.”
Good idea.
“Tigers,” he began. “Lions, seals, giraffes…”
CHAPTER 3
IT was morning.
“We have to hurry,” Dad said. He was on his way to the zoo. “A black spider monkey might be born today.”
Luke threw on his jeans. He was going too. Soon he’d begin to help.
At the stove, Mom fried bananas. She’d buttered toast to go with them.
Luke finished breakfast in three minutes. But Dad was already on his way.
Luke shoved a piece of toast in his pocket.
“What a mess,” Benita said.
Did she ever mind her business? At least she’d forgotten to sing. He grinned at her.
Outside, he caught up with Dad. They went through the iron zoo gates.
Next they circled a pond. A green flag flew in front: TORTOISE TOWN.
“Imagine,” Dad told him. “Those giant tortoises lay eggs as big as tennis balls.”
Abuelo had told him that too.
He’d said they could live almost two hundred years.
They kept going. Keepers were feeding the animals. Some ate meat. Some had greens. Some even ate mice.
Poor mice!
Dad unlocked the door to a white building: THE BABY ZOO HOUSE.
“Want to look around outside?” he asked. “There’ll be plenty of time for you to help me.”
“Sure.” Luke wandered down a
