Snoop

Snoop (2025) is a middle-grade mystery novel by the prolific author Gordon Korman. Known for his humorous and adventurous young-adult fiction, Korman has written over 100 books, including the New York Times bestseller Restart. In Snoop, 12-year-old Carter Peregrine uses a wheelchair while recovering from a skiing accident. To combat his boredom, he begins monitoring his town’s public-access surveillance cameras, but his casual snooping soon uncovers a criminal conspiracy involving a ring of endangered animal smugglers. The novel explores the themes of The Blurred Line Between Observation and Intrusion, Redefining Strength Beyond Physical Ability, The Burden of Knowledge, and Redemption Through Accountability.

Korman grounds the novel’s premise in contemporary technological and social issues. The plot is driven by the real-world proliferation of public-access security cameras, which allows ordinary citizens to engage in surveillance, raising ethical questions about privacy and civic duty. The central mystery reflects the serious global issue of the illegal wildlife trade, a multi-billion-dollar black market that threatens the planet’s most vulnerable species. These real-world elements are woven into a middle-grade adventure, resulting in a story that works as both an engaging mystery and an exploration of modern responsibility.

This guide refers to the 2025 Scholastic Press first edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of animal cruelty.

Plot Summary

Twelve-year-old Carter Peregrine is on a spring-break ski trip in Colorado with his father and eight-year-old brother, Martin. The trip is intended by his divorced parents to reduce Carter’s screen use. Preoccupied with a viral dance called the “Chattanooga Chop,” Carter brings his phone onto the slopes. While watching Martin on the bunny hill, Carter becomes absorbed in videos and does not notice his brother skiing out of control toward him. Martin collides with Carter, causing identical fractures just below the knees in both of Carter’s legs.

Back home in North Carolina, Carter learns that he will need to use a wheelchair for two months. He moves into the ground-floor guest room, which he calls “the onion room” (8). He quickly realizes that his limited mobility gives him increased access to screen time. He begins attending school virtually via Zoom and appoints his best friend, Ethan Harouni, and his long-time crush, Lacey D’Agostino, as his student ambassadors. Ethan soon informs Carter that Lacey is growing close to Maddox Miller, the leader of a prank group called the “Chairmen of the Bored” (19). Carter recalls his “lifetime ban” from the group following a past conflict over their initiation rules.

Inspired by a news report showing footage from a public security camera, Carter discovers that he can access a network of these cameras through the Sterling Police Department website. He begins monitoring the town, initially hoping to watch Lacey and Maddox, but becomes increasingly absorbed in observing everyday activity. He watches a “food war” between rival restaurant owners Louie and Janine and observes a pregnant woman struggling with her toddler, whom Carter nicknames “Frankenkid.” He also notices a man he calls “Needle-Nose” repeatedly visiting the Paris Art Shop, which displays both a valuable replica of the British crown and a baby photograph of Carter taken by his mother, a secret he calls “The Diaper Shot” (35).

Carter escalates his snooping by accessing a private security camera at a frozen-yogurt shop to watch Lacey and Maddox. Later, during a tutoring session, Carter tries to impress Lacey by flying his mother’s professional photography drone and nearly crashes it into Maddox. Carter’s sleep schedule becomes disrupted, and he begins watching the cameras late at night. Over several weeks, he spots a series of endangered animals: a red panda, a swift fox, and what he believes is a bonobo. He anonymously calls the police to report them, but the officers dismiss his calls as pranks.

While watching a camera feed one day, Carter becomes convinced that Needle-Nose is about to rob the art shop with a baseball bat. He calls the police again and gives his name in an attempt to be taken seriously. When his mother drives him to the scene, they learn that the man, an artist named Mr. Grimaldi, is checking on his painting and that the bat is for his softball game. While there, the police catch the Chairmen of the Bored, including Lacey, placing a “HAT” sign on the shop window as a prank. Carter is mistakenly blamed for reporting them.

Carter becomes a social outcast. Lacey quits as his ambassador, and Ethan’s parents forbid him from visiting. Concerned by his camera use and the incident with the police, Carter’s mother confiscates his phone and limits his computer use to schoolwork. To pass the time, Carter practices maneuvering his wheelchair and develops increased upper-body strength. One night, Martin offers him his iPad, but Carter refuses.

During a doctor’s visit, Carter notices a distinct animal odor coming from the abandoned old courthouse and suspects that the endangered animals are being held there. Fearing that he’ll lose all technology access if he admits to further snooping, he decides to use his mother’s drone to gather proof. After pretending to be ill to miss a Zoom class, Carter flies the drone over the courthouse but finds nothing during the day.

On a night flight, he photographs a tree kangaroo and sees two men in a Zippy Airport Service van capture it and take it inside the courthouse. On a subsequent flight, he witnesses smugglers capture an escaped three-toed sloth. The smugglers spot the drone and pursue it. Carter escapes but sees the van searching his street, driven by a man whom he believes is his teacher, Mr. Grimes. Soon after, a police officer, Officer Pickett, visits Carter with a witness’s sketch of a red panda, confirming his earlier reports. Mr. Grimes also visits to discuss Carter’s problems at school, but Carter, believing him to be the criminal ringleader, refuses to speak to him.

While his mother is out, Carter takes the drone out again. After he watches the Chairmen pull a prank, Martin discovers him with the drone and spots a snow leopard on the camera feed. Carter sees his classmates walking toward the animal. After a failed call to the police, he travels downtown in his wheelchair. He creates a diversion, drawing the snow leopard’s attention away from his friends. The animal chases him, and he deliberately crashes his wheelchair into a streetlight and climbs the pole to escape.

The Zippy van arrives and tranquilizes the snow leopard. In the streetlight’s glow, Carter sees that the driver is not Mr. Grimes but his identical twin brother. As the smugglers prepare to leave, Carter uses the drone to smash the van’s windshield, causing it to crash. The police, whom Lacey has called, arrive and arrest the smugglers.

Carter informs Officer Pickett about the courthouse, and a police raid on the basement rescues all the captive animals. Carter reconciles with his friends and classmates, who give him a standing ovation on Zoom. His mother reveals that the drone was insured. The real Mr. Grimes thanks Carter for stopping his criminal brother.

Soon, Carter’s casts are removed, and he begins using crutches. The old courthouse is demolished to make way for a new banquet hall co-owned by Louie and Janine. Carter’s mother returns his phone, and on his first walk downtown, he recognizes that his snooping had become excessive and resolves to change his behavior. He solves one last mystery, learning that the man in the red Maserati, whom he had seen on camera feeds, has been waiting for months to reunite with a lost love. The couple reunites and buys “The Diaper Shot” from the art shop, taking it to their home in California and relieving Carter of his long-held embarrassment.