User:Bettygirly/Hoot

Plot Summaries
Chapters 7-9

The partial identity of Mullet Fingers is revealed to Roy by Beatrice in the cab of Jo-Jo's Ice Cream and Sno-Cones truck. He learns Beatrice and Mullet Fingers are stepsiblings.

Considering that the site of the soon-to-be Mother Paula's All-American Pancake House is being vandalized, the foreman, Curly, is starting to feel the heat from the boss. In his next attempt to secure the site, he hires a German dog trainer and his extremely ferocious rottweilers. Everything is fine until the rottweilers end up in a fearful frenzy the next morning, when "poisen snakes wis shiny tails" appear inside the fence.

Later, Roy learns that the site is being vandalized by Mullet Fingers. Also, Mullet Fingers had put the snakes in the fence; while pulling his arm away from the fence, one of the rottweilers bites him.

Chapters 18-20 When the ground-breaking ceremony is moved forward, Beatrice and Roy offer to help Mullet Fingers with his protesting. But when Mullet Fingers declines the offer, it does not discourage Roy from helping further.

That morning, Roy uses the advertisement in his social studies class to raise awareness about the burrowing owls. "The machines are going go bury all those burrows, and every thing inside," Roy explains. Later that day, at the ceremony, Roy starts a protest with Beatrice's help.

When the protesters find they have insufficient evidence and are about to give up, there is a cry from the other side of the lot: "Wait, it ain't over! Not by a mile it ain't." It was Mullet Fingers. He had managed to squish himself inside an abandoned burrow. This causes an uproar. Then, in a moment of silence, a small bird twirls in the air and lands on Mullet Fingers's head. "'Don't worry, little guy,' the boy said. 'You're safe for now.'"

Characters

 * Beatrice Leep- "A tall girl with curly blond hair and red-framed glasses."
 * Dana Matheson- A tormentor of lower classmates, the typical bully. Just like other bullies, he finds inflicting pain on others quite pleasurable.


 * Chuck Muckle- The "vice president of something-or-other" at Mother Paula's All-American Pancake House.

Reception
Carl Hiaasen started writing children's books when he realized that the other novels that he had written were too adult for his nieces and nephews. In writing his first young adult novel, Hiaasen faced some challenges: "The biggest challenge was trying not to subconsciously 'write down' for young readers." He found that YA novels were easier to write. Hiaasen said, "When I was creating the character in Hoot, I'm sure I stole liberally form my pre-adolescence."