Carl Hiaasen is from Miami; he’s apparently been writing about Florida and Miami for many years. At the moment he’s a columnist for the Miami Herald; I don’t actually know what his columns are about, but I’m sure I should. He’s written a good deal of strangely funny books for adults, including Sick Puppy and Skinny Dip. Hoot is his first novel intended for children/YAs, and considering that it was a Newbery Honor Book a few years ago, I’d say he did just fine for his first time out. It was turned into a movie by Walden Media some time recently. I haven’t seen it yet, because I thought I ought to read the book first. After reading the book, I definitely intend to find the movie at some point.

Roy is the new kid at Trace Middle School; he’s usually the new kid somewhere. His father works for the Department of Justice, and therefore the family moves around a lot. Being the new kid, of course people want to beat him up; one day, as Dana Mathewson is trying to strangle him, he sees a strange boy without any shoes running fast and far. Roy jumps off the bus and follows the kid, but before he can catch him, he’s hit by a golf ball. Who is this kid, and why is he running around without shoes? Secondarily, why has there been random acts of vandalism (pulling up the survey stakes, painting a sleeping cop’s car windows black, removing the seats of the heavy equipment) on a construction site for Mother Paula’s Pancake House? Does someone hate flapjacks?

Based on the title and the cover of the book, I’m guessing that most people will have some clue that owls have something to do with it. They do; small (about 9 inches tall) burrowing owls that are protected by regulations. Everyone in the book who sees them thinks some variation on, “Wow, those are the cutest things I’ve ever seen!” The baby owl is described as “fragile as a Christmas ornament” and “perfect” at some point. They are real; they really are protected in Florida, but their habitat is still being destroyed. Hoot isn’t non-fiction, but the events regarding the owls are very close to reality. I’d recommend Googling “Florida burrowing owl” for pictures and more information.

Roy is a great main character; he’s smart, resourceful, imaginative, and strong-willed. At the beginning of the book, he’s still definitely a kid; a seventh-grader (I think), he’s barely five feet tall and weighs 94 pounds. (There’s a great scene, bordering just on the edge of pain, in which he asks a girl how much she weighs, to compare it to his own weight. He somehow doesn’t get pounded into the ground for this.) At the end of the book, I don’t think he’s changed in age or height or weight, but in a touching scene (talking a walk), Roy’s father recognizes that he’s grappled with a moral dilemma greater than most adults regularly deal with, and that it’s matured him in some very real ways.

The pacing was great; in addition to that, the book’s really funny. Roy’s antics with Dana (who’s a boy, by the way) and Beatrice, while very different between the two, still sparkle with slapstick humor. I did, in fact, laugh out loud when reading the book. However, of course it’s more than just a zany, hilarious adventure. The moral, which has something to do with standing up for what you believe in, is present, although not irksomely so. It was more a gentle suggestion than a brick over the head. I never have to debate whether a book is a five-star book or not. I know it absolutely when I close the book, and Hoot was easily 5/5 stars.