Genre
A children's novel, fantasy
Setting and Context
The events mostly take place in the Clarksville City Zoo. Noah Nowicki, the protagonist of the story, tries to find his missing sister. He suspects that the local zoo might have something to do with her disappearance. To learn truth and find Megan, Noah starts his own investigation. His loyal friends, Richie Reynolds and Ella Jones, try to help him in this task.
Narrator and Point of View
The story is mostly told from the third point of view by an omniscient narrator.
Tone and Mood
Tone changes from worrying to exciting, while mood is mysterious and adventurous.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Noah is the protagonist of the story, while Charlie Red and bigfeet are antagonists.
Major Conflict
The major conflict in this story is person vs. obstacles. Noah and the rest of the Action Scouts want to find Megan, but different obstacles and difficulties created by others prevent them from achieving their goal.
Climax
The moment when Noah falls into the hands of a bigfoot and starts thinking that there is might be a chance that he is not going to see Megan ever again is the climax of the story.
Foreshadowing
The prelude foreshadows the events of the story, for it is a chapter in which a reader finds out that something strange is going on in the Clarksville City Zoo.
Understatement
N/A
Allusions
The Clarksville City Zoo, Noah’s Ark
Imagery
Imagery is used to describe the magic world inside the zoo.
Paradox
The sign read, YOU ARE NOW ENTERING FORT SCOUT! DO NOT ENTER!
This is one of numerous examples of paradox from the novel. The sign is paradoxical, for it has two opposite meanings. It could also read, welcome and go away.
Parallelism
His body jerked…rose…dipped; jerked…rose…and dipped.
Due to this rhythm of a sentence, a reader can imagine how carefully penguins move.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
Give me a hand with this slippery punk!
A hand is an example of metonymy, which denotes help.
Water flowed throughout the city.
Water is an example of synecdoche, which denotes lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, pools and aquariums.
Personification
Darkness enveloped them.
Instead of writing that it is getting darker, the author prefers more poetic expression and personification helps him in this.
