Module 7: Hoot

Summary:
Roy, who has recently moved to a small Florida town, finds himself wrapped up in an attempt to save a colony of burring owls from certain demise at the construction site of Mother Paula's pancake house. Roy is intrigued by a mysterious boy who goes by the name "Mullet Fingers" and his attempts to sabotage the pancake company that is trying to destroy the colony of owls.

Reference:

Hiaasen, C. (2002). Hoot. New York, NY: Random House.

Impressions:
The characters make this book stand apart from the crowd. With a bully named Dana and feral boy who goes by the name Mullet Fingers, there are sure to be crowd pleasing moments! This book kept a good pace as the adventures unfold. The reader doesn't know if Roy is digging himself into deep trouble or if he's doing the right thing for much of the book. This makes for a thrilling read that includes adventure and mystery. Hiaasen has created a story that really gets you thinking, "What would I do in this situation?"

Professional Review:
"The straight-arrow son of a maybe-federal agent (he’s not quite sure) turns eco-terrorist in this first offering for kids from one of detective fiction’s funniest novelists. Fans of Hiaasen’s (Basket Case, 2001, etc.) novels for adults may wonder how well his profane and frequently kinky writing will adapt to a child’s audience; the answer is, remarkably well. Roy Eberhardt has recently arrived in Florida; accustomed to being the new kid after several family moves, he is more of an observer than a participant. When he observes a bare-footed boy running through the subdivisions of Coconut Grove, however, he finds himself compelled to follow and, later, to ally himself with the strange boy called Mullet Fingers. Meanwhile, the dimwitted but appealingly dogged Officer Delinko finds himself compelled to crack the case of the mysterious vandals at the construction site of a new Mother Paula’s All-American Pancake House—it couldn’t have anything to do with those cute burrowing owls, could it? The plot doesn’t overwhelm with surprises; even the densest readers will soon suss out the connections between Mullet Fingers, the owls, and Mother Paula’s steadfast denial of the owls’ existence. The fun lies in Hiaasen’s trademark twisted characters, including Dana Matherson, the class bully who regularly beats up on Roy and whose unwitting help Roy wickedly enlists; Beatrice Leep, Mullet Fingers’s fiercely loyal sister and co-conspirator; Curly, Mother Paula’s hilariously inept foreman; and Roy’s equally straight-arrow parents, who encourage him to do the right thing without exactly telling him how. Roy is rather surprisingly engaging, given his utter and somewhat unnatural wholesomeness; it’s his kind of determined innocence that sees through the corruption and compromises of the adult world to understand what must be done to make things right. If the ending is somewhat predictable, it is also entirely satisfying—Hoot is, indeed, a hoot." (Fiction. 10-14)
[Review of the book Hoot]. (July 2002).  Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved from: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/carl-hiaasen/hoot-2/

Library Uses:
Give students time to think about a situation that they feel needs to be changed. If needed, provide students with the opportunity to research their topics. After gathering facts and any other helpful information, students can write a persuasive letter to try to make a change.