Overview: Roy has just moved to Florida with his dad. He has moved around a lot and has rough start with the kids at his new school. As Roy is settling into his new town a restaurant, Mother Paula's Pancake House, is being constructed. Suspicious activities around the new restaurant bring Roy to an quirky character, Mullet Fingers. Though Mullet Fingers, Roy discovers there is a owl burrow at the restaurant site and decide to try to take action to save them. With new found friends Beatrice and Mullet Fingers, Roy battles middle school bullies and adult bullies to eventually save the owls and stop the building of the new restaurant.
Hiaasen, C. (2002). Hoot. New York, NY. Random House Publishing, Inc.
Little Library Review: Hoot is a book with several different themes and of good and evil that kids will be drawn to. The characters are silly and interesting that will keep the book light and funny while tacking tough issues. The book is setup in a way that multiple characters face challenges and grow through out the story. There are plot elements with step families. lost of family members, changes, moving and bullies lot of connecting threads that a early teens will be able to relate to while they are finding their own moral foundation.
Other Professional Reviews: Gr. 5–8. It seems unlikely that the master of noir-tinged, surrealistic black humor would write a novel for young readers. And, yet, there has always been something delightfully juvenile about Hiaasen’s imagination; beneath the bent cynicism lurks a distinctly 12-year-old cackle. In this thoroughly engaging tale of how middle schooler, Roy Eberhardt, new kid in Coconut Cove, learns to love South Florida, Hiaasen lets his inner kid run rampant, both the subversive side that loves to see grown-ups make fools of themselves and the righteously indignant side, appalled at the mess being made of our planet. When Roy teams up with some classic children’s lit outsiders to save the home of some tiny burrowing owls, the stage is set for a confrontation between right-thinking kids and slow-witted, wrongheaded civic boosters. But Hiaasen never lets the formula get in his way; 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. —Bill Ott
Ott, B. (2002). Books for middle school readers. Booklist, 99, (4), p405.
Using it in the Library đŸ“–: Activities or lessons that can be done with this book: research project on owls, the conservation of owls, a discovery investigation of owl pellets, create a poster or persuasive commercial for or against the restaurant building.
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