Review Detail

All Ears is the quintessential Stuart Gibbs book. With no less than 3 people getting animal urine all over them, plenty of animal facts about Elephants, and conversations about conservationism, it hits the mark on being thought-provoking and humorous. In this 9th book in the Funjungle series, Teddy and his girlfriend, Summer, work hard to solve the mystery of the kidnapped Elephant before it winds up being killed in an illegal hunt. With such an established series, the author brought in people and references from previous books that made the world this story exists within feel fully fleshed and dynamic.
Teddy’s good friend also finds himself in major trouble, pushing Teddy’s detective skills to the limit to help everyone in time. While seemingly unrelated, this subplot weaves nicely into the larger mystery, as well as showing young minds the price of progress in developing areas, even when the end goal is a worthy one.
I listened to this book as an audiobook. The narrator does a fantastic job bringing this world to life. However, Gibson Frazier is also the narrator for Gibbs’ highly popular Spy School series. The overlap is distracting because the different voices would launch me into temporarily thinking of different spy school characters instead of staying in tune with this plot and feeling like they were unique.
Overall, this is a fantastic addition to the Funjungle series. Gibbs does a nice job of slowly maturing his characters as they have gained experience, so that the events feel plausible. The hijinks are top notch, the bad guys get their comeuppance, and all the while, readers are learning to care more about animals and conservation. I like that these books are fun while also using the platform for a positive purpose.