Scat

cburke - The name of my book is Scat by Carl Hiaasen. The story is based around a group of characters that all have their own secrets behind a mysterious fire that broke out in the woods while a school was on the field trip. A teacher goes missing while trying to find a little girls inhaler and hasn't been seen in days. Detectives find evidence of arson, and all eyes are wandering. A mysterious arson, a missing teacher, a juvenile student, and a greedy business company all have their secrets that have yet to come out. Two students, Nick and Marta, are the only ones who have the curiosity to piece it together. With them only being in seventh grade, it is hard to convince anyone. All the people in town are turning against each other, yet a culprit is hiding right under their noses. This book is truly amazing. It not only represents mystery well, but it's relatable dialogue and characters add onto the realistic fiction. The clues are given ever so subtly, and connections are cleverly imputed. It switches off between characters, almost telling different stories every other chapter. This gives you different background knowledge and curiosity involving every character as a suspect, instead of having a seemingly one sided story. I believe that this genre is realistic fiction because all the events that happen in it could happen in real life, but the characters are fiction. There is no sort of fake elements to the book, which makes it relatable and realistic. The characters are made up by the author, but the events are based around true life events. The characters are fiction, but the plot is far from fake. A school teacher disappearing, and the students trying to solve it, are things that can happen in real life and have most likely happened. People who would enjoy this book are fans of mystery. The book is based around a mysterious event, but it has a lot more to offer than just that. It has relatable characters, interesting dialogue, and most of the things that make realistic fiction great. Audiences who love relating to characters and plots that involve clues given ever so subtly are going to be more than impressed by what Scat has to offer. An example of an internal conflict would be with one of the characters Duane, or Smoke. He struggles to find his true self throughout the book, as people try to tell him who he should be. This internal struggle is shown throughout the story, as it comes up often. His grandmother wants him to be a gentleman, while his father isn't a big fan of that. Since Smoke lives alone with his father, he hasn't ever had the chance to find out who he truly is without someone telling him. This is an internal conflict because it is man v.s man, meaning he is against himself throughout the story. Although there are no external conflicts, the book is interesting in many different areas. Scat is a book that creates a relatable connection between the reader and the characters. Whether it is the struggle of being at home, being at school, or feeling alone, Scat has all the different types of struggles that readers from different backgrounds can enjoy.

October 27, 2008
Hiaasen reprises Hoot
with a panther in the owl role, an oil company as the villain and a rich renegade named Twilly Spree as the outlaw environmentalist determined to save Florida from developers. The kid hero is Nick Waters, saintly son of a minor league pitching coach who joined the National Guard to augment a meager salary, wound up in Iraq and has come back badly injured. Nick’s ample worries multiply after his science teacher disappears while on a field trip to the Black Vine Swamp. When Nick goes to the aid of a classmate suspected of involvement in the teacher’s disappearance, he stumbles onto dangerous facts about the swamp: an endangered Florida panther has taken up residence, and an oil company has begun an illegal drilling operation. Nick is way too good to be true—he’s more the son every parent dreams of—but Hiaasen’s smooth writing, whacked-out humor and highly entertaining cast of oddball characters keep the plot clipping along. The achievement is in the underlying earnestness—formulaic or not, the story will move readers, and any kid who loved Hoot
will like this. Ages 10–up.

November 15, 2008
During a field trip to Black Vine Swamp, a suspicious "wildfire " breaks out, and much-feared and -reviled science teacher Mrs. Starch vanishes. The school gets a letter stating she is away on a "family emergency, " but no one believes that. Nick Waters and his friend Marta Gonzales are sure bad-boy Duane "Smoke " Scrod, Jr., is to blame for both fire and disappearance. However, there 's more to Duane, Mrs. Starch and the fire than Nick or Marta could ever imagine. This is Hiaasen Country, so the complications include a rare Florida panther, a crooked oil company, a tree-hugging Hayduke of a millionaire and a couple of well-meaning-but-not-as-swift-as-the-kids detectives. Hiaasen 's third outing for young readers might be a little slow in pacing and the character types might be recognizable to experienced readers, but fans of Hoot and Flush (2002, 2005) will not be disappointed by this funny, believable, environmentally friendly tween thriller. (Thriller. 10-15)

(COPYRIGHT (2008) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

Starred review from January 1, 2009
Gr 5-8-Once again, Hiaasen has written an edge-of-the-seat eco-thriller. When their unpopular biology teacher goes missing in a suspicious fire during a field trip to the Black Vine Swamp, Nick and Marta don't buy the headmaster's excuse for her absence and decide to do some investigating of their own. Eco-avengers; an endangered, hunted panther; illegal pipelines in the Everglades; and an underachieving student with the nickname "Smoke" all play a part in this gripping novel. From the first sentence, readers will be hooked. The teens' dangerous detective work, with help from some unlikely sources, and the ethics of environmental awareness are well balanced. The emotion and personal changes that Nick goes through due to his father's injury in Iraq are on their own a worthy study of the struggles that military families are facing today. This well-written and smoothly plotted story, with fully realized characters, will certainly appeal to mystery lovers."Dylan Thomarie, Johnstown High School, NY"

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2008
Grades 5-8 Hiaasen starts off this storya hybrid madcap swamp adventure and cast-driven environmental whodunitwith the disappearance of a biology teacher after a fire breaks out during a field trip in the Everglades. The immediate suspect for the fire, at least, is a young miscreant, but friends Nick and Marta figure something else is afoot: it might have something to do with the nefarious oilmen slinking about nearby, as well as the rumor of an endangered panther and her cubs in the swamp. A generous cast of characterseach imbued with a few unexpected traitsflits about and provides most of the impetus to keep things rolling. Adding some emotional heft is the subplot involving Nicks father; he returns home from Iraq minus his right arm, and Nick binds his own arm so that they can learn to become lefties together. Hiaasens gumbo tastes a lot like his previous efforts, pitting conservation against reckless greed and setting the can-do of youth among determined Floridian quirkiness. But theres a reason why a recipe tastes so good time and again.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)