Hoot by Carl Hiaasen

Bibliography
Hiaasen, Carl. 2002. Hoot. NY: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0375921818.

Plot Summary
Hoot is the story of how one person can truly make a difference. Roy Eberhardt is the new kid in town; Dana Matherson is the school bully. On Roy's first day of school, he gets into a fight with Dana on the school bus. During the fight, Roy notices a shoeless boy running down the street. To curb his curiosity, Roy decides to look for the shoeless boy. What he discovers is a new friend and a cause to fight for.

Critical Analysis
Hoot is a great story that offers a little bit of everything: the awkwardness of moving and starting a new school, making new friends, defeating the school bully, and discovering how one person can truly make a difference. After Roy Eberhardt's family moved to Florida from Montana, he meets a shoeless boy nicknamed Mullet Fingers and they become friends.

At the same time, Hiaasen includes the on-going vandalism on a local construction site in the storyline. Someone is trying to delay or stop the building of Mother Paula's All-American Pancake House by uprooting the survey stakes, spray painting the windows of the police car while the officer slept, and putting alligators in the porta potties. These pranks are all in an effort to save the burrowing owls who make the construction site their home.

These two story lines eventually cross when the underdog, Roy Eberhardt, saves the day (the owls) and exposes the companies' efforts to hide their knowledge of the owls' home. Hiaasen does a great job creating a story with believable characters (who hasn't either moved or been picked on) fighting a realistic environmental cause. An excellent read for both older children and adults.

Reviews
Booklist: "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."

Publishers Weekly: "Though readers will have few doubts about the success of the kids' campaign, several suspenseful scenes build to the denouement involving the sitcom-like unraveling of a muckity-muck at the pancake house. These, along with dollops of humor, help make the novel quite a hoot indeed."

Connections
*Have children choose an animal listed as endangered and research ways that they could help protect them.
*Plan a field trip to a local zoo to learn more about animals and their habitats.