44 pages • 1 hour read
Bryan ChickThe Secret Zoo
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2007A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 38-45Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 38 Summary: “Hummingbird Hideout”
Mr. Darby and Tank bring the Adventure Scouts into the building known as Hummingbird Hideout, where scientists safely study hummingbirds. Ella wants to learn more about where they are, while Noah wants to know how everyone knows them and where Megan is. Mr. Darby begins his tale about the start of the Secret Zoo.
Chapter 39 Summary: “The Good Heart of Frederick Jackson”
When Frederick Jackson was young, his father frequently traveled and left him alone with his mother. One day, his mother accidentally fell down the stairs and died in Frederick’s arms; the emotional distance between the father and son grew as both fell into their grief. Once, when they were hiking, a farmer asked them to take a monkey he had on his property—the farmer was selling his farm and couldn’t take the langur with him. When Mr. Jackson saw how happy the animal made his son, they brought it home and built a cage in their backyard. More exotic animals came to their house, and their collection grew. Frederick died young, and Mr. Jackson descended into a state where he associated the captive animals with his son, believing he was keeping his son alive. This belief led to the creation of the Secret Zoo.
Chapter 40 Summary: “Bhanu Lakshman and Mr. DeGraff”
Mr. Darby halts his story to look at Mr. Jackson’s journal while the Adventure Scouts’ animal friends play in the area. A Mr. DeGraff came to Mr. Jackson’s house while the latter was looking for a solution to expand the zoo by doing more than extending the cages. Mr. DeGraff offered him the name of a man—Bhanu Lakshman—who lived in India and could help him. When Mr. Jackson found Bhanu, Bhanu agreed to help on two conditions. First, he needed his two identical brothers from different mothers and places. Mr. Jackson also consented to Bhanu’s second condition.
Chapter 41 Summary: “Magic and Machines”
Bhanu’s second condition was that the Secret Society—an organization dedicated to helping endangered animals—could use Mr. Jackson’s Secret Zoo as a meeting ground to protect animals worldwide. Once agreed, Bhanu, his brothers, Mr. Jackson, and his construction crews combined magic and machinery to dig holes underground and magically expand them to create the Zoo. Mr. Darby stops his story and says they all should go for a walk because they have important business to attend to.
Chapter 42 Summary: “Back at the City of Species”
Mr. Darby guides the children through the Forest of Flight and into an elevator that takes them back to the City of Species. Ella and Richie play with the animal companions they meet. At the same time, Noah learns how every sector connects to the City of Species and has at least one connection to the City Zoo. Most exhibits in the City Zoo have access to the outside world so that the animals can patrol the Secret Zoo’s perimeter. Mr. Darby ends his explanation by telling the Adventure Scouts that he believes Megan is trapped in the Dark Lands, where the sasquatches live.
Chapter 43 Summary: “More Secrets of the Secret Zoo”
The sasquatches are the Secret Zoo’s dark secret. The Secret Society brought the endangered creatures—stuck between human and animal—to the zoo; once there, the sasquatches hid. Eighty years before, they came out of hiding and attacked the City of Species, forcing the citizens to fight back and push the sasquatches into isolation in the Dark Lands, which the Society closed with barricades. Now that the Adventure Scouts have found the Secret Zoo, the Society plans to send them into the Dark Lands to find out if Megan is there. They explain that nobody contacted Noah’s family sooner because they didn’t want to risk the Shadow Master reaching the Zoo.
Chapter 44 Summary: “The Scouts Take Center Stage”
Mr. Darby brings the Adventure Scouts through the city to a meeting area where the Secret Council meets. He calls the meeting to order and recounts the current position of the “Megan Situation” and then outlines the plan to enter the Dark Lands for a rescue mission. One of the council members challenges Noah, asking him if there is proof and why the City of Species should open itself to potential sasquatch attacks. When Noah says he misses his sister and how her disappearance tore his family and community apart, the council agrees to tear down the walls and enter the Dark Lands. Mr. Darby gives the children a final warning that sasquatches are dangerous and that anyone who enters the Dark Lands may not make it out alive.
Chapter 45 Summary: “Operation Wrecking Crew and Rescue”
Animals and humans gather in the streets of the City of Species. The larger animals prepare to assist in destroying the wall into the Dark Lands while smaller animals and humans move out of the way nervously. Mr. Darby informs the masses that they will enter the Dark Lands to rescue Megan and asks the Adventure Scouts to lead the way. Blizzard and friends bring down the wall, and the Adventure Scouts go through the curtain into the Dark Lands.
Chapters 38-45 Analysis
In this section, the pace of the narrative becomes much slower and more reflective as the backstory for the Secret Zoo is explained and more complex emotional and moral themes come to the fore. Much of this is accomplished through the figure of Mr. Darby, who raises themes of family love and loss and, especially, The Need to Conserve Nature, and Mr. Jackson, who is key to the theme of Learning Judgment With Courage. This section of the book also shows the children interacting closely for the first time with adults and marks a transition from the child-centric adventure of the earlier chapters into a phase where the children must again acknowledge and negotiate the adult world.
The backstory centers around Mr. Jackson, who, although he is only known anecdotally, becomes a complex character through whom a number of the book’s more sophisticated ideas are introduced. He is a sympathetic character because his motivations are good and understandable. He exemplifies the importance of Learning Judgment With Courage. His dream is good, and his intent is well-meaning, but he does not think through his actions, and though he begins by bravely challenging the world’s approaches, he fails to appreciate the proper limits of what he can, or should, accomplish. Mr. Jackson becomes a parallel character to Noah: Both have experienced familial loss, and both start on impetuous rescue adventures. What makes Mr. Jackson and Noah different is the connected theme of The Powerful Bonds of Friendship. Noah can grow and accomplish his goals because his friends are by his side. Mr. Jackson’s tale is a cautionary one that highlights the importance of seeking and accepting help from trusted friends.
Mr. Darby represents the reintroduction of adult themes, structures, and solutions to the novel. He is an archetypal magical authority figure who must navigate the rift between two factions of the Secret Society and who helps interpret the adult world for the child characters and the reader. Unlike Mr. Jackson—whose story he has been able to learn from—Mr. Darby considers how his actions will affect others but does not allow that to prevent progress. He finds the appropriate balance of Judgment and Courage and encourages Noah, the Adventure Scouts, and the Secret Society Council to do the same. He encourages personal moral responsibility in decision-making: “One must think for oneself, yes?” (199). This is key to the tone and purpose of this section of the book, where individuals must pursue an appropriate course of action based on their understanding and reflections; this exemplifies another side to problem-solving for the middle grade reader, as compared to the exciting, active problem-solving of the earlier sections.
This section properly introduces the reader to the series antagonist: Mr. DeGraff, or the Shadow Master. In many ways, Mr. DeGraff is Mr. Darby’s foil. Where DeGraff hides his motivations, Mr. Darby is an open book. Mr. Darby is honest and fair: He does not hide his intentions from Noah, nor does he hide the inherent risks. In contrast, Mr. DeGraff relies on mystique to breed a sense of dread, making statements such as “I’ll talk when I’m ready to talk” because “Mr. DeGraff would not be rushed” (174). The dichotomy between Mr. Darby and Mr. DeGraff explores the real-life power dynamic between adults and children and the difference between honest explanation of life’s difficulties to children and withheld information that can create fear and confusion. The Shadow Master calmly waiting also creates structural suspense and fear in the story, and the patterning of the novel creates deliberate knowledge gaps typical of mystery narratives: Mr. Darby’s story is unclear on Mr. Degraff’s role and motivations. The Shadow Master will grow as an antagonist throughout the series, and so the novel sets up a slow-burn mystery surrounding him that will take more than the novel’s narrative arc to resolve.
