Hoot

Rating:
Summary: A funny book with a pleasing suspense and steady pace
Review: Being a fan of Mr. Hiaasen's wonderfully twisted, weird fiction for adults, I was intrigued by the idea of him writing for a younger audience. Would there be a crazed, hulking idiot with a dead pit bull hanging off his arm? A roadkill-eating former governor? How would he present his somewhere-between-amused-and-disgusted attitude toward humanity in a manner palatable to kids?

I'm happy to report that HOOT is funny, well written, and enjoyable, even for a depraved old lady like me. The plot concerns Roy Eberhardt, an intelligent, resourceful middle-school student who has just moved to Florida from Montana. He misses the mountains and wilderness of Montana. As a kid who has moved a lot, he's not surprised to be the victim of bully Dana Matherson. While being pummeled by Dana on the school bus, Roy spies a kid running along the sidewalk, a kid with no backpack and no shoes. Intrigued, he sets out to find him and gets involved up to his eyeballs in the strange kid's guerilla tactics to save a particular street corner from its fate as the future site of another Mother Paula's All-American Pancake. The adults seem to be ignoring the burrows of tiny owls that will be buried by the bulldozing equipment any day now. Roy's parents explain that it surely is a shame about the owls, but the company must have filed all of the papers and received all of the necessary permits. But Roy and his new friends --- Mullet Fingers, the outlaw boy, and Beatrice, his tough, soccer playing stepsister --- are not about to take the destruction of the owls' burrows lying down. Along the way they outwit Officer Delinko, the ambitious cop who tries to protect the site, and Curly, the foreman who's responsible for getting the job started.

Roy's parents are thoughtful and very caring. Roy shields his tenderhearted Mom from the fact that Mullet Fingers lives in the woods and at the dump because his own mother doesn't want him. That's probably the most brutal aspect of the novel, unless perhaps it's the dishonesty of the Mother Paula's corporation in attempting to deny the existence of the endangered owls. Mr. and Mrs. Eberhardt worry about Roy and advise him, but ultimately, Roy figures out a successful plan on his own.

The book carries us along with a pleasing suspense and steady pace. The author provides neat encapsulations of each character's motivations that are often missing from adult fiction. (Presumably we can work it out for ourselves.) While it might be missing the extreme characters and profanity of his adult novels, HOOT still reflects Mr. Hiaasen's usual indignation over the rape of his native Florida. Roy is an appealing character, one who may very well inspire young readers to question authority when necessary and act to protect the environment. How subversive is that? Kids of all ages should love it.

--- Reviewed by Eileen Zimmerman Nicol

Rating:
Summary: Environmental struggle for kids
Review: Roy Eberhardt has just moved from Montana to Florida. He misses the mountains and in the school bus he is bullied by the enormous and stupid Dana Matherson. Then he sees he boy running on bare feet and is fascinated by the question who this boy is. Slowly but surely he gains the trust of the boy and his stepsister Beatrice Leep. The story is about a new branch of Mother Paula's All-American Pancake House, which will be build on a site where cute and endangered miniature owls are living in holes in the ground. After numerous adventures Roy finds that life in Florida is not so bad after all.

A children's book (10-12 years) that is a smooth read. Roy may be a rather docile, politically correct boy with very understanding parents, but the story line has wit and a good pace and matters are solved with a lot of creativity rather than force.

Rating:
Summary: A great book
Review: Hoot is one of those rare young adult books that keep readers of all ages entertained. It deserves to sit on your top shelf with other modern day classics like King Fortis the Brave, Holes and Harry Potter.

Rating:
Summary: A strong foray into children's books, but he'll do better.
Review: The following is a review by a long-time Hiaasen reader for other such readers considering picking up "Hoot":

Having read nearly all of Carl Hiaasen's adult novels (only excepting "Sick Puppy"), I was excited to receive a new Hiaasen novel for Christmas, his first children's book.

While it's definitely a Carl Hiaasen novel, he pulled some punches in the work that make it one of his lesser titles. It wasn't his strongly pro-environment stance (present and in a version that everyone can relate to, even adult readers who were ready for an example of Florida's problems that doesn't involve draining the Everglades, as serious of an issue as that is) nor his eye for detail (a hair on the lip of a middle school vice-principal ranks up there with one of the classic Hiaasen bits of all time), but his characters.

In every other Hiaasen novel, there is at least one hilariously odd character who helps break up the seriousness of the work by their misguided insanity, whether it's the hit man commiting murder for plastic surgery in "Skin Graft," the hapless Hooters-besotted would-be white supremacists in "Lucky You" or any of the rock industry hangers-on in "Basket Case."

While these characters traditionally help break up the sometimes instense stories, they're also one of the places where Hiaasen's manic sense of humor gets a chance to shine. Without it being present in "Hoot," the book feels like the author (or maybe an editor) was holding him back. And as a result, the various non-kid characters seem somewhat depressingly pathetic. (Honestly, do we need more than two adults who are about to lose their jobs, when one of them is a perfectly nice individual who's just stuck in the middle of this chaos?)

Which isn't to say that "Hoot" isn't a good book -- it's a great one, one that pre-teens and up will enjoy (although there might be a few parents who take issue with the single swear word and Hiaasen's strongly anti-authority stance) and one that long time Hiaasen novels will find well worth picking up.

I especially look forward to Hiaasen's next work of fiction -- one could almost feel his creative juices being recharged by doing this somewhat different sort of novel. While his usual rogue environmentalist, Skink, has gotten very tired, he creates a kid-appropriate substitute in "Hoot," and makes him the central focus of the story. I hope we'll see more of Mullet Fingers and the Eberhardts in his adult novels.

Recommended for Hiaasen fans and for readers 12 and up.

Rating:
Summary: Hoot's a hoot!!
Review: I love Hiaasen's novels about Florida and all of the zany characters he creates to tell his pro-ecology stories. When I saw he had written another one I reflexivly one clicked to have it sent to me. When I got it I thought it was a tad smaller in size than the usual novel one buys in hardcover and the print seemed to be a little large, but no matter as I dove into the saga of Roy Eberhardt.

I was perhaps a couple of chapters into the book when I noticed on the fly leaf that it was a Children's Book of the Month Club selection. Really? Well, I was enjoying and as I continued to read through it I continued to be drawn along with the story of the new boy from Montana being introduced to both the beauty of Florida and it's not so beautiful experiences with developers.

In this story the guys in black work for a Pancake House conglomerate called, Mother Paula's All American Pancake House. They intend to open their 469th family style restaurant on a piece of property in Coconut Grove. The fences are up. The construction trailer is on the site. The bulldozers have arrived. All appears to be ready for construction to begin. Then things start to happen. First all the survey markers are pulled up and all the stake holes are filled in.The air is let out of the construction vehiles tires. Alligators (small ones) are put in the out house toilets. No work is being done. The date for a grand opening is approaching. Who is doing this and why are no mystery to the reader, but they are a serious question to the construction foreman, Curly, police officer Delinko and Curly's boss at headquarters, Chuck Muckle. Of course, Mother Paula's is about to be constructed on land on which there a bunch of burrowing owls. Mother Paula's people know it. No one else does until a very unusual "hero" sets in motion a wonderful string of events which leads to a predictable but very humorous conclusion.

It may have been written for children, but what the heck - we are all kids at heart.

Rating:
Summary: monicas review for the book!
Review: dear carl hiaasen,

my names monica hernandez and im writting to you to tell you how much i enjoyed your book. There was alot of excitment. And also alot of mystery and its was comical. I havent read a book like that that was so good in a long time!also I am very amazed how some body can add all those details in a story like that. I will also like to thank you for making such a good book for us to read thank you.

Rating:
Summary: Incredible by Yury Serna
Review: The book was fantastic, the book is full of small, cunning mysteries. The book is extremely hilarious. Like, for example the alligators in the porta-potties, for "Curly" it wasn't funny at all but for me and the rest of my 6th grade Language Arts class it was very funny.Mother Paula's All-American pancake house is full of incredibly histerical chracters, like "Curly" who killed a rat in his bathroom thinking it was a cotton mouth mocassin. Then he put rat traps to trap any more rats.
However, this book is also caring for the environment and its living things in it.Like the most important subjects of the story are Burrowing Owls who are almost killed by the building of Mother Paula's. Fortunately they are saved by Roy Eberhardt,Beatrice, "mullet Fingers", etc.
My favorite chapter is Ch.20, when one of the owls finally give proof that the holes everybody thought were abandonrd years ago, wasn't true. "Mullet Fingers" is in one of the holes and a Burrowing Owl flies in the air, and lands on top of his head it is just incredible, I believe it left the whole audience with their mouth open.Even though the book doesn't describe their faces I could picture an image of Chuck.E Muckle all with hatred inside. All I have to say is that I would love to read what is next in Mr.Hiaasen's mind, which I bet is always full of ideas.

Rating:
Summary: Santis review of HOOT
Review: I really think that this book was really exceptional because I had never read a book like that,in the fact that it tiik part in two different places.This book is about this kid named Roy that moves constantly from place to place some would even call him a nomad.Resently he moved from Montana to Coconut Cove.Here Roy will find friends enemies and courage to stand up for himself.On the first day of school he notices a running boy while getting choked by the schools bully Dana Matherson.Roy Also finds a lot of adventures on the Way. The End

Rating:
Summary: A GREAT BOOK
Review: This was a great book (...).Roy was a good character because he was a new kid in town and he made friends and he tried his best to help his friends save the owls. My favorite part was when Roy told all of his classmates about Mothers Paulas groundbreaking and that they were going to kill some owls. Then Beatrice told all of her soccer friends about the owls too and they all came. Then while Chuck E. Muckle was talking the kids started protesting and sayind to save the owls. Another of my favorite characters was Mullet Fingers because he never quit tring to save the owls. He would vandalize the property,he would do life threating things like give big dogs something and give them snakes, and do other things like mess with allegators.I think that Roy's most important part was when Dana slamed him against the glass and he saw Mullet Fingers.This book taught me to choose what is best from the heart and from the brain.I really liked the book HOOT!

Rating:
Summary: I loved it!
Review: Dear Carl Hiaason,

i have just finished reading your book "hoot" and i loved it! At first when my teacher told me that my class was going to read "Hoot" i thought it was going to be a dum book about owls. But as soon as i read the first word i couldnt stop readng.It is so funny and i love the way how you used sarcasm a lot in your story. What i also liked about your book is that you used a lot of similes and metaphors. I think that what makes your book the best is that the plot of the story is so original than all of the other books i've ever read.
My favorite part of the story is the ending when roy and beatrice stopped the construction of Mother Paula's because of the owls. I love the way how you made each character in the book different. My favorite character is Nepolian Leep a.k.a Mullet Fingers. He's my favorite because he is so adventerus and isnt afraid of taking risks. And i love the fact that he broke so many rules just to save those owls.
Anyways i just wanted to say what a great book you have created and i hope the next book is as good as the one before!