Carl Hiaasen

Nick and his friend Marta decide to investigate when a mysterious fire starts near a Florida wildlife preserve and an unpopular teacher goes missing.

Scat

Sarah Sammis

Carl Hiaasan writes adult and young adult novels. I've read most of what he's written and consider him a favorite author. I prefer his young adult books so I was thrilled to see he had a new one out, Scat.

Nick and Marta dread going to Mrs. Starch's biology class. She's the toughest teacher in the school but she goes missing during a field trip to the Black Vine Swamp after taking on the class bully. Did he do it or is there something more sinister going on?

Scat like Hoot and Flush has a strong environmental message. Here the message is conservation of the Florida panther habitat. The Florida panther is a local variation on the cougar (or mountain lion as it's called in California). Like in Hoot, the main character ends up befriending an outsider (in this case, the class bully).

The novel though has an added layer of depth, though. It includes a sub plot involving Nick's father who is stationed in Iraq. He comes home injured and Nick while trying to focus on his missing teacher and his uneasy alliance with Duane has to also come to terms with how the war has changed his father.

The addition of this plot arc doesn't feel forced as it sometimes can. I can remember a time in the mid 1980s where all of a sudden nearly every male character had to have ties to Vietnam regardless of how plausible that was given the rest of his background. Hiaasen seems to have though through this piece of the story so that it works with the novel and helps Nick to grow as a character.

I read this also when I was younger. It's good but not amazing. 

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Dustin Wyse-Fisher

Scat

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