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. ( )

New boy in town is picked on by the school bully but is more interested in the strange, feral kind of boy who runs every day alongside the bus, barefoot, and never gets on it... and who is trying to save the burrowing owls from a pancake house construction site, using pranks such as putting Florida alligators in the port-a-potty. ( )

I am reviewing the audio CD version of Hoot. I enjoyed listening to Chad Lowe read this engaging book. Carl Hiaasen has captured the “new kid” angle and the “smaller kid” angle with ease. Roy hates Florida. He just wants to go back to Montana until he sees the “running boy.” Once he sees the boy, he is determined to solve the mystery of whom he is and why he was running.

Roy gets involved in Mullet Fingers’ crusade to save the burrowing owls from the Mrs. Paula’s Pancake House crew. The unwavering resolution of Mullet Fingers inspires Roy to learn to love Florida, or at least accept that it isn’t a horrible place to live. As much as Roy, Mullet Fingers and Beatrice save the owls, they save Roy as well.

The adult characters are basically there to provide some comic relief. The brains of the mystery are provided by the Middle School kids. Officer Delinko and Curly are steps away from being their own new version of the Three Stooges (heck, one even has the name already!). Roy’s parents are loving and kind. Roy’s law-enforcement dad helps Roy locate some important missing information but for the most part the adults are not particularly involved.
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My parents loved Carl Hiassen and were delighted when they could share this with us kids. We loved this, too! But we never really got into Hiassen's adult novels. ( )

While Hoot was written as a book for young readers adults like it too. In Carl Hiaasen's book Roy is a new boy in a Florida middle school. He meets a bully named Dana who picks on him on the school bus, a soccer playing girl named Beatrice who is bigger and stronger than any of the boys and Beatrice's runaway stepbrother who won't tell anyone his name. The unnamed step brother has found borrowing owls on the site where a new restaurant is going up. Will Roy, Beatrice and the boy without a name save the owls? Read the book to find out, or see the movie. ( )