Title:

Hoot

Author:

Carl Hiaasen

Category:

Fiction / Literature

Rating:

Date Reviewed:

February 7, 2025

id you know that Carl Hiaasen, renown author of funny novels about Florida life and crimes, had written a children's book called Hoot? I didn't know either - I saw a copy of Hoot on the Friends-of-the-Library Used Booksale shelf, so I bought it for a dollar. An even bigger surprise: right there on cover is a stamp proclaiming that Hoot was a Newbury Honor Award winning book!

Hoot is a quick read. It isn't as funny as some of Hiaasen's adult books. Although some rather unusual events do happen, Hiaasen has dialed down the bizarro-meter a bit. Although the bad guys get their comeuppance in the end, Hiaasen withholds some of the lethal karmic outcomes that dispatch the villains in some of his other stories.

The story features a likeable Middle-School student named Roy Eberhardt. Roy and his family have just moved to Florida (his dad works for the federal government and so gets shifted around the country frequently.) Their previous home was in beautiful Montana; Roy finds Florida's flat boring landscape to be sterile and uninteresting. Being the new kid at school, Roy gets picked on by the bully on the bus. Hulking Dana Matherson torments Roy (the school bus driver naturally never notices a thing) until one day Roy delivers a mighty bunch to Dana's noggin and breaks his nose. Dana is mad now and out for blood.

Roy is intrigued by the sight of a barefoot boy he sees sprinting across the countryside. Who is that guy? He's awfully fast. And why isn't he in school? Roy tracks the boy down, and finds himself drawn into secrets and night-time hijinx. It turns out that on a nearby vacant lot, there are plans to build another Mother Paula's Pancake House. The only problem is that the empty lot is not actually vacant - it is the home of a colony of small burrowing owls. These tiny owls live underground in abandoned holes that they takeover from rabbits. Burrowing owls are endangered and are protected (even Florida has laws like that!). But this is a Carl Hiaasen story, so of course the evil corporation has no intention of abiding by environmental regulations. The bulldozers are ready. But Roy and his new friends have some plans to stop them.

This story contains an elemental of turning-the-tables on the adults that young readers might enjoy. The evil project foreman is trying to get the bulldozers rolling, but is continually outwitted by the our young protagonists. Roy outsmarts the bully Dana. The policeman trying to catch the vandals is fooled.

The story moves along briskly. As obstacles are overcome, Roy keeps getting deeper into the campaign to save the owls. Naturally, the corporate honchos at Mother Paula's are determined to win, because of course the corrupt executives will always try to impose their will. Hiaasen is a professional story teller, he knows how to keep the reader turning the pages. This is book is worth a Hoot.