Teaching resources for Hoot can be downloaded from the Scholastic website.Carl Hiaasen was born in 1953 and grew up in a rural suburb of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Hoot (the book) won a Newbery Honor award in 2003, and was also made into a movie in 2006. American author Carl Hiaasen writes in an easy language, and humour flows through the whole story, engaging the reader. Hoot is a fun read for environmentally aware readers, a “humorous ecological mystery” with an underlying message of standing up for what is right, especially standing up for those who can’t speak for themselves. Will Roy and his friends – a few middle school kids – be able to rescue the owls and their habitat? He does a lot of research and is able to involve his whole class, and his friends each involves the groups they’re connected with to protest against this development. Once Roy finds out what the sabotage is about – to save a few families of endangered burrowing owls, he joins the “campaign” against the development of the site where the Mother Paula’s All-American Pancake House will be built. But the vacant lot/building site is terrorized and vandalized every night, while the project planners try their level best to keep the project on schedule.

In the meanwhile, a new site is being prepared for the erection of another branch of Mother Paula’s All-American Pancake House. Nobody wants to stand up or tell on Dana because they’re too scared of him, but Roy outwits him and ends him up in a juvenile detention centre “where he receives all the help he needs”. Getting hit against the head and slapped in the face all in the presence of a totally oblivious bus driver, and getting suspended off the bus for two weeks, don’t stop him from fighting back. He meets the most interesting characters, and a series of exciting events follow as Roy pursues this mysterious boy.Īll the while, the bullying continues, but Roy doesn’t take nonsense of Dana, the Bully – he has no intention of hiding and putting his life on hold because of intimidating kids – he has his own mysteries to solve. Intrigued by this mysterious barefoot running boy, Roy sets off to find him and find out what he’s up to, and why he’s not in school.

Roy, while his face was being mushed against the school bus window by the bus bully in his new school, notices a barefoot boy running passed the bus stop and out of view.

Hoot author carl hiaasen