Hoot

Hiaasen must be the most entertaining environmental author there has yet been. Now addressing a younger audience for the first time, his latest passionate but also very funny novel jogs along paths already familiar to fans of his previous adult eco-thrillers. Set in his beloved but continuously over-developed state of Florida, this story features a wild boy out to defeat a Pancake company from building on land dwelt in by rare burrowing owls. Up against him are Curly, the grumpy, bald site foreman, Officer Delinko, an unfortunate policeman, and Chuck E Muckle, company chairman and ruthless entrepreneur. All this is witnessed by Roy, a new boy in the area who is also the target of his school’s chief bully. How everything finally works out is a joy to behold, with enough one-liners to keep any reader happy long after the event.