Customer Reviews
Excellent Adventure - By: Steven R. McEvoy, 02 Apr 2008 
This is a story about a boy, Roy, who has just moved to Florida. His first day at school he gets callled `Tex' & the nickname sticks & the harassment begins. Yet life is never as simple as being the new kid in school, trying to hang low & trying to just get by.
He meets many interesting characters in Florida:
Dana Matherson - The School Bully
Mullet Fingers - A Kid who lives in the forest
Beatrice Leep - Captain of the Soccer Team,
And Mullet's Stepsister
But Mullet is on a mission. He is trying to save burrowing owls from being wiped out by the Mother Paula's Pancake House, which is supposed to be building a new restaurant.
Mullet uses guerilla tactics: allligators in the port-a-potties, snakes alll over the job site, & many, many more. Roy tries to go a different route: checking out building out permits, getting classmates to come & speak & raise their voice at the groundbreaking.
Can a few young kids save an endangered bird? Will Mullet, Roy & Beatrice succeed? Pick up the book & read it. There is also a movie coming out this summer that should be a hit with children & adults alike.
Awful, awful book - By: Emily Mission, 28 Dec 2007 
There is no plot in this book!! The whole thing is just ramblings of unrelated goings-on & then every seven chapters, the author will remind the reader (or perhaps, himself) that Roy is trying to save the owls. What is happening is a pancake chain is going to hurt some endangered owls to build a pancake restaurant. But guess what! They've got a celebrity endorsing them. When she finds out they're going to kill owls, she storms off. There is no character development whatsoever, no believability, & no plot!! Horrible book.
Environmental struggle for kids - By: Linda Oskam, 22 Dec 2006 
Roy Eberhardt has just moved from Montana to Florida. He misses the mountains & in the school bus he is bullied by the enormous & stupid Dana Matherson. Then he sees he boy running on bare feet & is fascinated by the question who this boy is. Slowly but surely he gains the trust of the boy & his stepsister Beatrice Leep. The story is about a new branch of Mother Paula's All-American Pancake House, which will be build on a site where cute & endangered miniature owls are living in holes in the ground. After numerous adventures Roy finds that life in Florida is not so bad after alll.
A children's book (10-12 years) that is a smooth read. Roy may be a rather docile, politicallly correct boy with very understanding parents, but the story line has wit & a good pace & matters are solved with a lot of creativity rather than force.
bit of a hoot - By: Gentle John, 20 Jul 2006 
Interesting ideas, with eco friendly theme & good sense of isolation in the kids. however do we need another character who thinks that farting is cool or even funny, i mean reallly!? Hiassen keeps a lively pace & you do root for the villains to get come uppance, but the end lacked any bite. neat cover though!
Hiaasen is a master - By: A. R., 09 Jun 2006 I am a big fan of Carl Hiaasen's. He perfectly captures the frustrations of being picked on, & unaccepted as a child. His encounters with Dana, the bully, are great as Roy always has a way to win out.
The author does an incredible job of showing the different styles of activism that different people resort to. He presents the reader with the contemporary clash of free enterprise versus global ecological issues. He has a lot to say about parenting, & he has some great insights into the methods of dealing with bullies.
This is a great book for the young teenagers, but I think the adult fans might get a kick out of it, too. HOOT is definitely a title that you'll want for your collection. Another book that I strongly recommend for this age group "Why Some Cats are Rascals". Actuallly it is a series of three books...
