Book: Tyrannosaurus Wrecks| Author: Stuart Gibbs | Genre: Mystery, Fiction, Humor | Age: 10+
Consider books like a cone of ice cream. The genre is the flavor, more genres the book has within, the more flavorful it is! And when it comes to this book, you get a whole lot of flavor! To start of with, you get the mystery! Mystery books are by far of the most popular book genres in all of literary existence. Almost everyone loves a suspenseful page-turning book that can entice you to read it till the end, even though it may cost you a day! And on top of that, you get a good imaginative fiction! AND ON TOP OF THAT, you get the big laughs or little giggles with the Hilarious Humor! Oh, what a cone of ice cream… If you liked the sound of that, Tyrannosaurus Wrecks is for you!
If you’d ask me, I would recommend this book for 10-12-year-olds. Although the publishers have recommended it as 9+, I feel that with high vocabulary terms used, and the deep and detailed plot, a nine-year-old may find this book either a bit hard, or a bit too twisty. I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars -⭐⭐⭐⭐ / ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐, meaning that the book is a great book, but if thoroughly judged, the book may not be the best among all books. Now that doesn’t mean it isn’t a good book, it just means that it has some aspects in which not everyone would like it – (I LOVE IT!)
In this book, the protagonist is the all-time FunJungle (a fictional theme park) detective and whiz, Teddy Fitzroy, with the deuteragonists being his friends Summer and Sage. It’s the middle of the Texas summer, with crazy heat, and some harsh rainstorms. Teddy Fitzroy is all set for a campout at his friend Sage Bonotto’s ranch, where Sage has a surprise that awaits for Teddy when there is an unexpected problem. The surprise, which is a TYRANNOSAURUS SKULL that Sage found and dug up in his ranch has been stolen! And that too, in the middle of a rainstorm! With the reputation that he has of being better that the best (the police, the professional detectives, etc.), Sage pleads to Teddy to crack this case! Teddy hesitates but takes on the case. And at the same time, there is another problem. The bullies at Teddy’s school (Tim and Jim Barksdale) call him and say their new pet anaconda ate their mom’s cat Griselda, and since he’s such a whiz, he needs to help them. But where can you get an anaconda in a civilized and legal area? Now Teddy has two cases to crack! Where did the T.rex skull go, and where the Barksdale’s get their no-good hands on an anaconda?! What happens next? Well, since I’m not a book spoiler, you’d better get reading to find out!
The things I like about this book is the imagery, suspense, humor, and how everything comes together in the end. But what I love the most about ‘Tryannosaurus Wrecks‘, is that it touches on the illegal and exotic pet trades, and animal cruelty.
You see, without animals, our world is pretty unsightly. Our world without nature is just roads, cities, humans, CO2, and factories. And the illegal and exotic pet trades are not helping. Poachers kill or capture exotic animals very roughly. Then smugglers bring the animals are brought to third-world countries where there are loose rules relating to animals so they can get legal paperwork, and cannot get caught doing what they are. Then the smugglers take the animals through crazy conditions, which are very harsh for them, like on ships, in huge bags, etc. to smuggle them to the US. The animals are in unbearable conditions, without food and water, and suffocating conditions. Some die, and the smugglers sell their body parts if it has value, and then sells the left over alive one’s to illegal dealers, who seem to have legal paperwork. And boy do the smugglers go crazy to do what they do! There was a case where a smuggler smuggles endangered Fiji Iguanas to the US by stuffing them in a compartment he designed in his prosthetic leg, and then casually boarding a flight as though he did nothing! He did it several times, but finally caught when the flight attendent accidental rolled the meal trolley over he prosthetic leg while he was sleeping, which pulled it off, and let out all the iguanas! More on that here.
It may sound like it’s only a couple of animals dying here and there, but IT IS NOT! In fact, through the illegal trade, around 30, 000 animal species are being driven to death each year by being hunted, captured or killed by poachers. The industry makes around 4.2 to 9.5 billion dollars in revenue a year! And at least 75% of pet snakes, lizards, tortoises, and turtles die within one year of becoming a pet! All of this needs to stop! If it doesn’t, planet Earth will become a Mars or some other planet without any life forms!
Important Links!
If you are interested to a change in the world and save animals, support the WORLD ANIMAL PROTECTION ORGANIZATION! More on them here: World Animal Protection
If you are interested to read this epic, action-filled, mystery book, buy it at: Amazon.com – Tryannosaurus Wrecks
Extra Info!
More on the Illegal Animal Trade
More on the Illegal Animal Trade on Google
That was it for my book review for ‘Tryannosaurus Wrecks‘, written by Stuart Gibbs. Comment below on what you think of this book, and your learnings from this book, and please do write some feedback. For more, subscribe to my blog! Thanks!
-Kartik Lakhwani
The Kartik-Sphere 