Carl Hiaasen

Hoot

Sarah Sammis

I thoroughly enjoyed the book. My son has been nuts about owls since he was a year and half old. While he's still too young (at age 3 1/2) to sit through me reading this book, I plan to get a copy for my PC collection to read to him in a few years. He and I do have a date to see the upcoming movie version.

Here in the Bay Area we have another species of burrowing owls that have put the stop to some local construction (including at the Stanford campus) so the story rang true. While the "running boy" seems a bit of stretch for a character, Beatrice, Roy and Dana rounded out the lot as believable middle school kids (for the good and bad). The story is a quick read, fairly predictable but ultimately satisfying.

For more information about the burrowing owls in Florida, see the Florida Burrowing Owl Project.

Hilarious, touching and thought-provoking, Hoot is a modern classic, now celebrating its fifteenth anniversary. Winner of the Newbery Honor award and a New York Times bestseller, Carl Hiaasen's first novel celebrates the natural world with his trademark wit and warmth. Roy Eberhardt never wanted to move to Florida. In his opinion, Disney World is an armpit. Roy’s family moves around a lot so he’s used to the new-kid drill – he's also used to bullies like Dana Matherson. And anyway, it’s because of Dana that Roy gets to see the mysterious running boy who runs away from the school bus and who has no books, no backpack and, most bizarrely, no shoes. Sensing a mystery, Roy starts to trail the mystery runner – a chase that will introduce him to many weird Floridian creatures: potty-trained alligators, cute burrowing owls, a fake-fart champion, a shoeless eco-warrior, a sinister pancake PR man, new friends and some snakes with sparkly tails. As the plot thickens, Roy and his friends realise it's up to them to save the endangered owls from the evil Mother Paula's pancake company who are planning to build a new restaurant on their home . . .

Maui S.

rumbledethumps

The great storytelling and direct writing I expect from Hiaasen, but not much of the absurdity I also expect. A good YA novel, but a run-of-the-mill Hiaasen novel.

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.

Beatrix Haase

I give up on this book. I did not enjoy it and couldn't finish it.

annie

Roy just moved to Coconut Cove, Florida. He is having major problems with the bully, Dana. One day on the bus, Roy spots a young boy about his age. The boy was running beside the bus. Roy didn't know the boy and was wondering about him. The strangest thing about him is that the boy was wearing no shoes! 
Later, Roy sees the boy again. Roy follows to boy to find out who he is. When Roy finally finds out who he is, he, Beatrice, and the mysterious boy go off to save some owls that are going to be killed.

Hoot

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