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Hoot (Paperback)
by Carl Hiaasen
| Category:
Award-winning, Bestsellers, Ages 9-12, Children's book |
| Market price: ¥ 118.00
MSL price:
¥ 98.00
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MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
Roy, who is new to his small Florida community, becomes involved in another boy's attempt to save a colony of burrowing owls from a proposed construction site. |
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Author: Carl Hiaasen
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Pub. in: May, 2004
ISBN: 0375829164
Pages: 304
Measurements: 8.0 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BC00041
Other information: Reprint edition
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- Awards & Credential -
The winner of Newbery Honor Book, the New York Times bestseller ranking #1,813 in Books on Amazon.com as of 30th nov.2006 |
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- MSL Picks -
Carl Hiaasen forges into new territory: The kid book realm. Cleaned up and devoid of violence or much profanity, he makes a cute, quirky book that isn't limited to just kids. If anything, Mr. Hiaasen's literary gifts are more pronounced when there are no seedy elements to distract the readers.
Roy Eberhardt recently moved from beautiful Montana to the swampy mishmash of Miami, and he's not thrilled about the change. He misses his old home, and the biggest, meanest bully of all, Dana Matherson, has taken a dislike to him. But on the bus, Roy catches a glimpse of a barefoot kid racing down the sidewalk. When he sees the boy a second time, he punches out Dana and pursues the kid (called Mullet Fingers, for a reason that will become evident late in the book).
A mystery vandal is sabotaging the site of a future pancake restaurant, pulling up stakes, sprat-painting a cop car, and setting loose a bunch of glittery cottonmouths. Things don't improve when Roy encounters the boy's sister, Beatrice, a very tall jock with muscles and teeth of steel. Beatrice warns Roy to stay away from Mullet Fingers, but Roy is already quite involved. Mullet Fingers is on a one-boy campaign to save the tiny burrowing owls that live in the construction site - and will be buried alive in their burrows when the construction begins. Roy begins walking the line between law and outlaw, right and wrong, trying to save Mullet Fingers and the tiny owls.
Roy is the kind of kid that readers love instantly - he's a quiet Charlie Brown who comes out of his shell for a good cause. (And he moons Dana) Mullet Fingers is a little harder to pin down, a strangely but that seems to be Hiaasen's intent. Beatrice is half-hilarious, half menacing - the scene where she bites off part of Roy's bike tire is a scream. Dana is a pain in the backside, and readers will laugh and rejoice at his comeuppance. And Hiaasen outdoes himself with Roy's parents. He doesn't make them stupid, condescending or obtuse, but rather they trust in the big corporations a bit too much. And one of the most touching elements of this book is that Roy asks his parents for their advice, and protects his kindly mother from the knowledge of how Mullet Fingers' own mother despises him.
Unlike many other adult authors who write a book for kids, Hiaasen doesn't dumb it down. He seems to have faith that his kiddy readers can handle tales of corporate double-dealing, environmental man-days, and paperwork that most people never have to think about. Kooky elements like a B-movie actress, an ambitious if well-meaning cop (the one whose car was painted), a baby alligator in a portal-john and a bunch of sparkling cottonmouths with taped mouths add an element of surreality to the book.
Hoot is a hoot, but it's also a charmingly serious novel. Kids will like Roy and the effective but realistic tactics he uses for the owls, and adults will like the thought-provoking storyline and quirky humor.
Target readers:
Kids aged up 8
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Carl Hiaasen (pronounced "hiya-sun") was born and raised in South Florida and presently lives in Tavernier, smack in the middle of the Florida Keys. He attended Emory University and was graduated with a degree in journalism from the University of Florida at Gainesville in 1974. Hiaasen began his journalism career writing weird public interest stories ("Garbageman for a day") at Cocoa Today (now the Melbourne-based Florida Today). He joined the Miami Herald in 1976, and since then has been a reporter for their general assignment desk, Sunday magazine and investigative team. As part of The Miami Herald's investigative team, Hiaasen has worked on projects exposing dangerous doctors in Florida, land corruption in the Florida Keys, and drug smuggling in the Bahamas and Key West. He is currently Metro columnist for the paper where his award-winning columns on rapacious development, egregious business practices, and corrupt politicians have helped clarify issues for the Florida citizenry.
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Unfortunately, Roy's first acquaintance in Florida is Dana Matherson, a well-known bully. Then again, if Dana hadn't been sinking his thumbs into Roy’s temples and mashing his face against the school-bus window, Roy might never have spotted the running boy. And the running boy is intriguing: he was running away from the school bus, carried no books, and–here the odd part - wore no shoes. Sensing a mystery, Roy sets himself on the boy's trail. The chase introduces him to potty-trained alligators, a fake-fart champion, some burrowing owls, a renegade eco-avenger, and several extremely poisonous snakes with unnaturally sparkling tails.
Roy has most definitely arrived in Carl Hiaasen's Florida.
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Roy would not have noticed the strange boy if it weren't for Dana Matherson, because Roy ordinarily didn't look out the window of the school bus. He preferred to read comics and mystery books on the morning ride to Trace Middle.
But on this day, a Monday (Roy would never forget), Dana Matherson grabbed Roy's head from behind and pressed his thumbs into Roy's temple, as if he were squeezing a soccer ball. The older kids were supposed to stay in the back of the bus, but Dana had snuck up behind Roy's seat and ambushed him. When Roy tried to wriggle free, Dana mashed his face against the window.
It was then, squinting through the smudged glass, that Roy spotted the strange boy running along the sidewalk. It appeared as if he was hurrying to catch the school bus, which had stopped at a corner to pick up more kids.
The boy was straw-blond and wiry, and his skin was nut-brown from the sun. The expression on his face was intent and serious. He wore a faded Miami Heat basketball jersey and dirty khaki shorts, and here was the odd part: no shoes. The soles of his bare feet looked as black as barbecue coals.
Trace Middle School didn't have the world's strictest dress code, but Roy was pretty sure that some sort of footwear was required. The boy might have been carrying sneakers in his backpack, if only he'd been wearing a backpack. No shoes, no backpack, no books-strange, indeed, on a school day.
Roy was sure that the barefoot boy would catch all kinds of grief from Dana and the other big kids once he boarded the bus, but that didn't happen....
Because the boy kept running-past the corner, past the line of students waiting to get on the bus; past the bus itself. Roy wanted to shout, "Hey, look at that guy!" but his mouth wasn't working so well. Dana Matherson still had him from behind, pushing his face against the window.
As the bus pulled away from the intersection, Roy hoped to catch another glimpse of the boy farther up the street. However, he had turned off the sidewalk and was now cutting across a private yard-running very fast, much faster than Roy could run and maybe even faster than Richard, Roy's best friend back in Montana. Richard was so fast that he got to work out with the high school track squad when he was only in seventh grade.
Dana Matherson was digging his fingernails into Roy's scalp, trying to make him squeal, but Roy barely felt a thing. He was gripped with curiosity as the running boy dashed through one neat green yard after another, getting smaller in Roy's vision as he put a wider distance between himself and the school bus.
Roy saw a big pointy-eared dog, probably a German shepherd, bound off somebody's porch and go for the boy. Incredibly, the boy didn't change his course. He vaulted over the dog, crashed through a cherry hedge, and then disappeared from view.
Roy gasped.
"Whassamatter, cowgirl? Had enough?"
This was Dana, hissing in Roy's right ear. Being the new kid on the bus, Roy didn't expect any help from the others. The "cowgirl" remark was so lame, it wasn't worth getting mad about. Dana was a well-known idiot, on top of which he outweighed Roy by at least fifty pounds. Fighting back would have been a complete waste of energy.
"Had enough yet? We can't hear you, Tex." Dana's breath smelled like stale cigarettes. Smoking and beating up smaller kids were his two main hobbies.
"Yeah, okay," Roy said impatiently. "I've had enough."
As soon as he was freed, Roy lowered the window and stuck out his head. The strange boy was gone.
Who was he? What was he running from?
Roy wondered if any of the other kids on the bus had seen what he'd seen. For a moment he wondered if he'd really seen it himself.
That same morning, a police officer named David Delinko was sent to the future site of another Mother Paula's All-American Pancake House. It was a vacant lot at the corner of East Oriole and Woodbury, on the eastern edge of town.
Officer Delinko was met by a man in a dark blue pickup truck. The man, who was as bald as a beach ball, introduced himself as Curly. Officer Delinko thought the bald man must have a good sense of humor to go by such a nickname, but he was wrong. Curly was cranky and unsmiling.
"You should see what they done," he said to the policeman.
"Who?"
"Follow me," the man called Curly said.
Officer Delinko got in step behind him. "The dispatcher said you wanted to report some vandalism."
"That's right," Curly grunted over his shoulder.
The policeman couldn't see what there was to be vandalized on the property, which was basically a few acres of scraggly weeds. Curly stopped walking and pointed at a short piece of lumber on the ground. A ribbon of bright pink plastic was tied to one end of the stick. The other end was sharpened and caked with gray dirt.
Curly said, "They pulled 'em out."
"That's a survey stake?" asked Officer Delinko.
"Yep. They yanked 'em out of the ground, every damn one.
"Probably just kids."
"And then they threw'em every which way," Curly said, waving a beefy arm, "and then they filled in the holes."
"That's a little weird," the policeman remarked. "When did this happen?"
"Last night or early this morning," Curly said. "Maybe it don't look like a big deal, but it's gonna take a while to get the site marked out again. Meantime, we can't start clearin' or gradin' or nuthin'. We got backhoes and dozers already leased, and now they gotta sit. I know it don't look like the crime of the century, but still-"
"I understand," said Officer Delinko. "What's your estimate of the monetary damage?"
"Damage?"
"Yes. So I can put it in my report." The policeman picked up the survey stake and examined it. "It's not really broken, is it?"
"Well, no-"
"Were any of them destroyed?" asked Officer Delinko. "How much does one of these things cost-a buck or two?"
The man called Curly was losing his patience. "They didn't break none of the stakes," he said gruffly.
"Not even one?" The policeman frowned. He was trying to figure out what to put in his report. You can't have vandalism without monetary damages, and if nothing on the property was broken or defaced....
"What I'm tryin' to explain," Curly said irritably, "it's not that they messed up the survey stakes, it's them screwing up our whole construction schedule. That's where it'll cost some serious bucks."
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Booklist (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-26 00:00>
"It seems unlikely that the master of noir-tinged, surrealistic black humor would write a novel for young readers. And yet, there has always been something delightfully juvenile about Hiaasen's imagination; beneath the bent cynicism lurks a distinctly 12-year-old cackle. In this thoroughly engaging tale of how middle schooler Roy Eberhardt, new kid in Coconut Cove, learns to love South Florida, Hiaasen lets his inner kid run rampant, both the subversive side that loves to see grown-ups make fools of themselves and the righteously indignant side, appalled at the mess being made of our planet. The story is full of offbeat humor, buffoonish yet charming supporting characters, and genuinely touching scenes of children enjoying the wildness of nature. He deserves a warm welcome into children's publishing." |
John R. Linnell (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-26 00:00>
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 reflexively 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 there is 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. |
A kid (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-26 00:00>
The book Hoot by Carl Hiaasen is a fiction novel. The main character is Roy Eberhardt, an odd middle schooler who just moved to Florida. Roy is an only child who is adventurous and determined. Mullet Fingers is a little younger than Roy and is homeless. Mullet Finger's tough step-sister, Beatrice, lives at home, but looks out for her step-brother. Another important character in the story is Dana, the school bully who tries to annoy Roy.
The setting of Hoot is in southern Florida near the Everglades. It takes place at the end of summer right at the beginning of the school year. Roy has to deal with the school bully Dana Matherson while he is on the school bus. Roy has gotten used to this kind of problem because he is used to being the new kid in school. Roy does a good job of getting back at Dana, because every time Dana bothers Roy he ends up getting hurt himself. The main problem in this novel is that the burrowing owls at the Mother Paula's Pancake House construction site will probably die if the Pancake House is built there. Mullet Fingers keeps trespassing and doing things to stop the construction from starting. Roy and Mullet Fingers mess up the ground breaking ceremony to keep the owls safe.
My favorite scene was when Mullet Fingers gets into the owl hole and the news people see him there and they prove the owls really live there. His step-mom sees him there and wants him to come home, but he runs away again. My favorite character was Mullet Fingers because he was brave and he never gave up. I would recommend this book to my friends because it is a really interesting book when you get to the end. Kids who don't like to read might have a hard time with this long book. I would give this book a rating of 4 out of 5 because it was a little hard for me, but it was a good book overall. |
Steven R. McEvoy (MSL quote), Ontario. Canada
<2006-12-26 00:00>
This is a story about a boy, Roy, who has just moved to Florida. His first day at school he gets called `Tex' and the nickname sticks and the harassment begins. Yet life is never as simple as being the new kid in school, trying to hang low and trying to just get by.
He meets many interesting characters in Florida:
Dana Matherson - The School Bully
Mullet Fingers - A Kid who lives in the forest
Beatrice Leep - Captain of the Soccer Team,
And Mullet's Stepsister
But Mullet is on a mission. He is trying to save burrowing owls from being wiped out by the Mother Paula's Pancake House, which is supposed to be building a new restaurant.
Mullet uses guerilla tactics: alligators in the port-a-potties, snakes all over the job site, and many, many more. Roy tries to go a different route: checking out building out permits, getting classmates to come and speak and raise their voice at the groundbreaking.
Can a few young kids save an endangered bird? Will Mullet, Roy and Beatrice succeed? Pick up the book and read it. There is also a movie coming out this summer that should be a hit with children and adults alike.
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