Hoot

Rating:
Summary: feel the same way sometimes
Review: This was a fun book to read but I didn't like some of the language. I feel the same way as him sometimes. Besides reading this book also read the real book "The Junior High Survival Manual" from amazon.com so you won't have so many problems in middle school.

Rating:
Summary: A Hoot For Adults Too!
Review: I am a big fan of Carl Hiaasen's columns and his off-the-wall novels, which focus on life in my old stomping grounds of South Florida. In interviews he has given, Mr. Hiaasen has said that he wanted to write a book that his kids could read as his adult works can be extremely crude and disturbing (although they are hilarious).

With "Hoot", I think he has made a very good first effort in the kids genre. The story line of Roy, the kid who has had to move all over the country on account of his faher's job hit pretty close to home to me as I was in the same situation growing up. Hiaasen perfectly captures the frustrations of being picked on and unaccepted as a child. His encounters with Dana, the bully are great as Roy always has a way to win out.

Roy becomes curious about a boy he sees running barefoot and after a while he learns about the boy, know as Mullet Fingers. This character comes off as a kid version of Hiaasen's infamous Skink from his novels Stormy Weather, Native Tongue and Sick Puppy. Mullet Fingers is a junior environmental terrorist who tries to sabotage a construction site which contains burrowing owls, which will be wiped out when the bulldozers roll. Roy learns all he can about the owls and the two, along with Mullet Fingers' stepsister, devise an interesting plan to stop the construction.

This is a great book for the early teenager, but I think his adult fans might get a kick out of it. There's no weed-wacker prostetics in this one or people who juggle skulls, but a fairly straight-forward story that has a message.

Rating:
Summary: Great Read Aloud
Review: I really enjoyed the characters in Hoot. The barefooted runner's anonymity grabbed my curiosity right off. Roy did the right thing by investigating the Environmental Impact Statement to support his protest. A great many lessons can be learned by this book.

Rating:
Summary: Carl needs to stick to the grown-ups
Review: I love Hiaasen's fiction. I was excited to know he was coming out with a book aimed at a younger audience so I could share him with my 12 year old, Sam not being quite ready for the likes of "Tourist Season". He and I read it together. Half way through he was begging me to put it down and start another book. I kept telling him we needed to keep going since I knew there would be a hilarious ending. Well, there wasn't. The book was boring, and the attempts at the Hiaasen humor didn't translate to this level of readership. The characters were not nearly as colorful as in his adult books. Bottom line-it just wasn't funny.

Rating:
Summary: Hoot is a hoot!
Review: As a third grade teacher I am always looking for books that not only entertain but teach a lesson. HOOT does both! My students enjoyed the story and learned about burrowing owls at the same time. They also saw the negativity of being a bully. Two lessons for the price of one. A downside for children in the eight-nine year old range was the use of a few inappropriate words. I look forward to reading this book again next year.

Rating:
Summary: Hoot
Review: With rich detail and the perspective of an eleven-year-old boy, Carl Hiaasen wrote an award winning novel, Hoot. In the story Roy Eberhardt moves to Coconut Cove, Florida from the rolling mountains of Montana. Making new friends is hard but Dana Matherson, school bully, takes all the blame for a wonderful relationship with a tough brother and sister. Going through fights and playing tricks doesn't stop this adventurous threesome from defending something precious and small. Mother Paula's House of Pancakes is coming to Coconut Cove, and right on top of a field of burrowing owls! Competing against an angry grounds keeper and curious policeman, the three will do anything to save the owls. Hoot was an adventurous and funny read. I recommend this book to anyone with a great sense of humor. There are new surprises on every page!

-Tator Tot

Rating:
Summary: Appropriately named
Review: I love all of Carl Hiaasen's works and HOOT, even though it's touted for the younger set, is no exception. With the same great writing, style, and sense of humor that is found in McCrae's THE BARK OF THE DOGWOOD (though that one's definitely NOT for children), Hiaasen hits his mark once again with this book. Using endangered species as the jumping off point, Hiassen weaves a tale that only he could come up with. The twistedness of his ideas, coupled with great writing, make this one of the most unusual books ever written. Thanks to Carl Hiaasen for giving us this stellar work.

Rating:
Summary: Hoot!!!
Review: How could anyone not take an immediate liking to 13 year old Roy Eberhardt? He is always the "new kid" in town, always trying to do what's right, and puts up with more that any kid would want to from a bully! As Roy's face is being smashed into the window of his school bus by Dana Matherson, the hefty school bully, Roy happens to catch a glimpse of another young boy running barefoot through his neighborhood.
Roy's longing for action and mystery in his new Florida community lead him to become a current-day Matlock and nature activist! He starts to look for the mysterious barefoot running boy, against the advice of classmate Beatrice Leep. Throughout his journey, Roy makes a few new friends, becomes more aware of doing what is right, thanks the bully, and irritates an executive from Mother Paula's All-American House of Pancakes! Roy soon finds that Florida is much more interesting and wild than he had originally assumed! This book is a real HOOT!!!


Rating:
Summary: Give a Hoot about Hoot!
Review: Hoot by Carl Hiaasen is an enthralling tale of mystery, confusion, and adventure. It is a dizzy story of 13-year-old Roy Eberhardt finding himself obsessed with a shoeless boy, running like a lightning bolt outside his school bus every morning. Roy gets beat up by Dana Matherson and suspiciously rejected by Beatrice Leap in his mission to learn more about the running boy and give him shoes.
From two perspectives, the story is told. Although all in third person, one side of the story is the life of Officer Delinko and the other, Roy Eberhardt. Roy is the new kid in the city of Miami and has not acquired many friends yet. He is a curious and adventurous young man with an ample amount of bravery, which can many times get into trouble with bullies. Officer Delinko is a lowly police officer who is constantly trying to prove himself in order to achieve his goal of someday becoming a detective.
Mother Paula's Pancake house is in the works of being built, but the ground is remaining bare because there is a small obstacle. Someone keeps vandalizing the property. Officer Delinko is on the case, trying to catch the clever prankster. When Roy finally meets Beatrice's stepbrother, the nameless running boy, he realizes this is more than just a silly joke. The running boy is delaying construction to save the owls. Roy soon realizes that saving the owls who will be left homeless after their homes are extirpated is the most important thing.
Hoot is told in such a way that I only knew bits and pieces of the story and had to read to the end to comprehend the whole picture. It's ironic that the book is crammed with devotion to something as simple as owls, but is incredibly touching. It is a novel filled with high-level vocabulary geared towards an eighth grade audience. It is a page turning mystery that made me realize that sometimes I jump to conclusions without knowing both sides of the story. Hoot is an adventure permeated with passion and love, along with humor and stupidity. Carl Hiaasen artistically intertwines two quirky stories to comprise one fabulous novel.


Rating:
Summary: It was an ok book.
Review: The book was definitely not the best book I have ever read in my life. I only enjoyed parts of it. I thought it was very confusing. I was about to give the book 2 stars, but I decided to be nice. I liked the parts where Roy kept seeing the poor kid on the bus, then followed him. It was just fine.