Hoot

by Carl Hiassen

Reviewed by Jimmy Yao

Fall 2017

REVIEW: Hoot by Carl Hiaasen

ISBN#: 0375821813

THE STORY:

Roy Eberhardt is a single child with two extremely caring and great parents. Roy lives in Florida in a city called Coconut Cove. Roy’s family travels from place to place so much that Roy can not remember how many or which schools he had attended, but he now goes to Trace middle school. Roy is just starting his new school and is already getting bullied by an older boy named Dana Matherson. One
day when Roy is pushed against the side of the bus, by Dana, he notices a kid with raggy clothe and no shoes on running very fast. Roy’s curiosity for the running boy grew and one day, as he was getting beat up by Dana on the bus, he decided to run after the boy. Dana grabbed onto him tightly and Roy punched him right in the nose and ran off the school bus chasing the barefooted boy. Later in the book, Roy gets beat up almost everyday, but one day a girl named Beatrice leep stops Dana from bullying Roy. Roy soon finds out that Beatrice and the running boy are siblings. The running boy explains to Roy that he wants to protect the owls. A restaraunt was to be built in Coconut Cove, but on the land that they have planned to build their restaurant there is a owl nest. In order to build the restaurant they would have to bulldoze the nest therefore killing the owls. Roy, Beatrice, and the boy become great friends and play a series of hilarious tricks on the construction site throughout the book. (264)

MY OPINION: When I first opened this book and read a couple of the first sentences I could already tell that this was going to be a rather easy book to read. At the beginning of the book I thought it would just be another one of those cheesy books about how a kid that is bullied overcomes his fear, but as I read on I could tell the author was really trying to be creative. The author used comedy and characterization very well which really hooked me as a reader. The author made Roy an extremely lovable character which really made me want to root for him and his friends at the end. The story was funny and creative, but at the same time it was really speaking the truth. In our world now, animals are dying because of big companies and construction sites such as mother paula’s pancake house, and I think this book does a great job showing that a lot of people still care about the environment (endangered animals), and we should preserve it. One negative of this book would be that it does not have a lot of advance wording or sentence structure. I would recommend this book to 4th,5th, and 6th graders. I would give this book a 4.5 out of  5 stars. (219)

STUDY QUESTIONS AND VOCABULARY:

FIRST SECTION

1. Who is Roy’s best friend?

1a. The main character’s name is Cassie Logan. (pg. 2)

2. Why did Roy chase the bare footed boy and why didn't he tell the principal?

2a. Roy chased the boy because he was very curious and did not tell the principal because it seemed like the sort of thing you would not tell your principal. (pg. 21)

3. After tracing back the steps of the boy with no shoes, what did Roy find?

3a. Roy found three bags. One bag with trash, one bag with clothes, and one bag with snakes, he found no shoes and also found ash from a burning fire. (pg. 51)

4. Who is officer Delinko and why is he so interested in the construction site vandalism?

4a. He is a police officer that does not get much exciting work and he wants a promotion. (pg. 25-27)

5. After Roy got poundede and slapped two times by Dana, what stopped Dana?

5a. Beatrice was brave enough to sit beside Roy and stop Dana from bullying him. She is strong. (96)

Irritably (pg. 5)

Nape (pg. 21)

Scabrous (pg. 94)

Flabbergasted (pg. 27)

Perpetrators (pg. 77)

MIDDLE SECTION

6. Why does Dana want to beat Roy up?

6a. Because when roy went out chasing the barefoot boy, he was getting harassed by Dana and the only way to get out of his grip was to punch him. (pg. 100-101)

7. Who saved Roy again?

7a. Beatrice Leep, this shows that she is starting to like Roy a little bit better. (pg. 111)

8. Where does Beatrice Leep take Roy to?

8a. First she takes Roy to his house to get ground beef and a first aid kit. Then takes him into the woods and Rory finds out that the barefoot boy is Beatrice Leep’s brother. (pg. 114-117)

9. Why does Roy go to the hospital?

9a. Roy goes to the hospital because beatrice’s brother is in horrible medical condition because he lives in teh woods and goes to military school. (pg. 139-142)

10. What was Roy’s plan to save the owls?

10a. Roy went to Dana’s house and mooned him so that he would follow Roy. Roy lead him to the construction site and told him that there were smokes in the trailer. As Dana walks in he steps into a mouse trap and officer delinko and curly both arrest him and think they caught the person. (pg. 185)

elude (pg. 99)

surmised (pg. 109)

elusive (pg. 131)

tersely (pg. 148)

rebuke (pg. 160)

LAST SECTION

11. What happened to curly and how does he know that Dana is not the only one that messed with the construction site?

11a.  Dana had already been taking away and busted, but even after that more things had been happening to his construction site, such as the stolen gun. (pg. 195 )

12. How deso officer Delinko know that Dana may be innocent?

12a. Officer Delinko knows that Dana did not do it because the person who vandalized the site put alligators in the porta potties and when he threw a alligator at Danan he was scared. (pg. 221 )

13. What does roy do to help mullet fingers? Does he accept?

13a. Roy gets a camera from his house to give to mullet fingers so that he can take a picture of the birds and sue the construction site, mullet fingers does not accept. (pg. 230)

14. At the grand opening ceremony, was Roy and beatrice the only people there? Why?

14a. EArlier in the book Roy had talked to his history class about the whole construction site incident and therefore he convinced a lot of them to come out and protest with him and Beatrice. (pg. 249)

15. How does the story end?

15a. At the ceremony, Roy, Beatrice, and all of his classmates join hand around the owls burrow and sing this land is our land. Before this officer DElinko had just found out that there was a owl burrow and helped the kids out by lying. Before this Beatrice's brother sets up the whole showcase at the ceremony to show that the owls are there. Beatrice’s brother’s Real name is Napoleon Bridger (pg. 271)

methodical (pg.202)

snit (pg. 203)

gangly (pg. 217)

extravaganza (pg. 238)

slyly (pg. 267)