Everything you need to know before (or after) reading Mason Bell's middle-grade animal-adventure series.
Every night, after the last coaster train pulls in and the gates lock behind the final guest, Galactic Fun Park belongs to somebody else. Four rival animal sections — rats, roaches, cats, and raccoons — have carved out a fragile peace among the rides and concession stands. But a theme park lives and dies by its reputation, and when the humans running the place decide the park has an animal problem, that peace is the first thing to go.
Reviewers have called the series a strong addition to the middle-grade shelf — one that treats young readers with respect rather than talking down to them, and builds out the park's hidden world in rich, specific detail.
Three books in, and the park still hasn't run out of trouble.
Book One
The park just finished its best summer yet — which is exactly the problem. A wave of guest complaints about "rodents" leaves management no choice but to call in exterminators, who set traps near every burrow and hovel they can find. For the first time, the rats, roaches, cats, and raccoons of Galactic Fun Park have a common enemy. The only question is whether decades of turf wars and wounded pride will let them act like it before it's too late.
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Book Two
Success brings expansion, and expansion means bulldozers in the West Woods. When true wild animals from beyond the park's fence come pouring in through the wreckage, residents start going missing — and a beloved leader doesn't survive. Grief curdles into blame between sections just as longtime operations manager Mr. Jenkins announces his retirement. Change is coming to Galactic Fun Park either way. Nobody agreed on what kind.
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Book Three
With Jenkins gone, the new manager promises business as usual, plus a few flashy perks. But favorite staff keep getting fired without warning, holiday events vanish overnight, and food grows scarce across every section. Why is the new boss always on the phone with investors, and who's digging by the stream at night? Animals and humans alike are being sold out from under the park — and finding the truth means trusting across every line that used to divide them.
Get the book →Four sections, four species, one very uneasy truce.
And here's who actually runs each corner of it:
Raccoons. Home to the park's games of skill and food court — raccoons love a video game and a slushie run, and there's always some kind of party going on.
Rats. Minister Balmore's turf. His job: keep the rats from lying about, snacking all night, and staging dramatic protests over the daytime lockdowns.
Roaches. Ruled by whichever roach currently holds the title of Grand Jeffery, who drills the intrusion on rule number one: never invade human space.
Cats. Right next door to Moon Man, and home to the park's only rollercoaster — Bubba Squeakers's favorite spot. All cats welcome, even the lazy ones.
Tap a ticket to flip it over and read the file.
The park doesn't know it has animal residents. That's kind of the point.