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Chapter Twenty-seven

I enjoyed Carter’s description of his mobility as “thump-swing-stomp.” Another GRK book featured a leg-casted lead known for thump-swinging (“deftly” and “at top speed” but also “morosely”). Anyone want to guess the character? Highlight the blank area below for the answer….

Duh: It was Raymond Jardine, the victim of a SACGEN blackout, in A SEMESTER IN THE LIFE OF A GARBAGE BAG. But half-points to anyone who guessed the aptly-named dairy farmer Mr. Turnbull in ON THE RUN: HUNTING THE HUNTER, who was also an accomplished thump-swinger.

So as SNOOP ends, Carter has regained his footing—ha!—at school, standing tall with his classmates. But the book’s resolution also ties up a lot of additional ribbons. Louie and Janine really do team up (but I still like “Knuckle Sandwiches” as the name for their lunch counter); Mrs. Peregrine and Mr. Grimes are both gracious; the endangered animals have a brighter future; even Fourth of July finds a home (far, far away).

With the book’s title and Carter’s claim to have learned that being a snoop can become an obsession, I hope any students lucky enough to be reading SNOOP as a class assignment will focus on the moral question of Is snooping inherently bad? I like that GRK doesn’t deliver a firm didactic lesson but leaves the takeaway open to readers’ interpretations. On the one hand, it sure concerns me to think of being spied on in this manner—I know I wouldn’t be happy about it. But Carter seems to have truly gained from his observations on the cameras and drone. Perhaps the guy in the Maserati delivers SNOOP’s true epimythium: “All the watching and waiting—it was worth it!” But of course that could’ve been the lovesickness talking.

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Speaking of covert surveillance: All you stealthy lurkers, now’s the time to make your presence known! Skip the blow-by-blow—just share your favorite SNOOP moment or a key takeaway.