Hoot by Carl Hiaasen Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Hoot
Book Review: An Overview of Hoot
Summary: 4 Stars
An interesting novel,Hoot,is the ultimate wildlife story. The onset occurs when young Roy Eberhardt moves to Coconut Cove, Florida, from Montana. Roy is used to being the new student due to the fact his family has lived in ten different places. One day while being tormented on the schoolbus, Roy notices an unusual boy galloping over the hedges at a swift speed. After some investigating is performed, Roy learns that the mysterious minor is involved in a local vandalism on the site of a Mother Paulas Pancake House.
Roy goes on to assist the renegade after he learns about eight inch owls that have made their home on the lot. Thanks to persistance by Roy,Mullet Fingers(as the boy is nicknamed), and the sister of Mullet Fingers(Beatrice Leep)end the project and save the tiny owls who continue to stay in their true home.
Book Review: Arrogant Protagonist
Summary: 3 Stars
Roy is pretty new to his Florida town. His father is in the government law enforcement agency and he and his family move around a lot. He isn't surprised when a bully on his bus, Dana, chooses to harass him. But Dana's harassment is a blessing in disguise--while Dana is shoving his head against the window of the bus, he sees a boy who looks to be about his age running barefoot through the yards near the school bus. Roy becomes determined in two ways: he is not going to let Dana bully him forever and he is going to figure out what is going on with the barefoot boy.
Both of these goals are more difficult than Roy originally thought. Even though he punches Dana, he still isn't left alone. And once he starts getting close to finding out who the barefoot boy is, an intimidating older girl named Beatrice starts beating up on him almost as much as Dana. What is going on?
Soon Roy becomes even more interested in the barefoot boy, especially when it becomes obvious he can't reason with Dana. But the boy is remaining very secretive. Roy begins to suspect the barefoot boy might have something to do with the ongoing vandalism that is stopping the pancake house chain from breaking ground in a nearby vacant lot.
I liked the friendship that sprung up between Roy and Beatrice, and I liked the relationship between Beatrice and the barefoot boy. I liked what happened at the end of the book to the barefoot boy, and I really liked the fact that this story of the vacant lot was told both from the point of view of Roy and from the point of view of the police officer protecting the lot.
I thought Roy's character was incredibly arrogant about everything, though, which made him a much less appealing and sympathetic character.
Book Review: Be mindful of swear words/political agenda
Summary: 2 Stars
My 9-year-old brought this home from the school library and upon reading it, informed me the word "damn" is used multiple times in the book. While it's not the most horrible thing in the world, I guess, teachers and parents should be aware it's in there. I'm puzzled as to why a children's book, and one that's apparently won awards, has swear words in it. Also, the synopsis on the book jacket described the story of a boy who moves to a new school and finds an unusual person to be friends with. However, my son told me the main points of the story were environmentalist in nature, coming out against a company developing land in Florida. While that kind of thing is something that should be discussed, I wish the synopsis had been more truthful. It's disappointing to see that there's some deception on the story description and then includes swear words once you get into it. Full disclosure is a good thing.Book Review: Carl Hiaasen: "HOOT" is a hoot
Summary: 5 Stars
I hope Hiaasen writes some more books for youth. I couldn't put it down and I am an elder adult with grandchildren. This book was a gift to my 10 year old grandson. I read it first to see what he was in for and I hope it really perks up his interest in reading and also the environment.Book Review: Carlos says... "this book is hilarious just like the book FLUSH"
Summary: 4 Stars
The story is divided into three main parts. This gives the reader different points of view from each character. The main part is about Roy Eberhardt and his friends "Mullet Fingers", and his stepsister Beatrice. The main part focuses on their efforts to try and save the owls' homes from getting bulldozed to make way for a construction. The second is about Officer David Delinko, who is one of the Officers investigating the sabotage acts on the construction site. He was caught sleeping during his early morning patrol once and was nearly fired. Now, with his job on the line he basically thought about nothing else but getting his job done. But when he sees the Burrowing Owls and slowly thinks about what will happen to them, he slowly has a change of heart towards the end of the book. The third part is of the construction Foreman Leroy "Curly" Branitt who also has his job on the line now that the construction was two weeks late. Despite his efforts to guard the construction site, the site is continually sabotaged and gets fired in the end. In the last part he doesn't join Roy and the rest of the crowd to protect the owls, but refuses to take any orders from his boss.
Overall I'd say this is a great book with its unpredictable and hilarious characters. Aside from being funny you could learn something too. I noticed that Hiaasen writes mostly about environmental problems. This book illustrates how animals are affected when we destroy their home for the sake of money. Nobody likes seeing their home destroyed. How would we feel if someone showed up on our homes and told us that our house was going to get bulldozed? In the words of Calvin and Hobbes: "How would humans feel if animals bulldozed a suburb and put in new TREES?"