Hoot
This book was about this kid named Roy Eberhardt, who moved to Florida from Montana. One day, on the bus en-route to school, he sees this strange skinny barefoot boy running across backyards who really piques his interest, and he sees him again a few days later and decides to chase after him. But this bully named Dana Matherson stops Roy and starts choking him, so Roy punched him in the face and chased after the running boy to a golf course, and gets knocked out by a golf ball. A few days later, he apologizes to Dana and asks to start things over fresh, to no avail, and he finally catches up with the boy who calls himself Mullet Fingers, because of his ability to catch mullet fish with his hands. Things were shaky for the both of them in the beginning, because when they first met, Mullet caught Roy in his territory and tied him to a tree and covered his head with a hood, but they eventually became friends. There was construction going on at this site around Roy's neighborhood, which was supposed to be "Mother Paula's Pancake House", but they were building the pancake house in the environment of owls, so Mullet constantly vandalizes the site for the sake of the owls. Soon Roy, Mullet Fingers, and many students of Roy's middle school were protesting for the protection of the owls, which resulted in the company being forced to cease construction of Mother Paula's Pancake House, and Mullet (real name then revealed as Napoleon Bridger) returns to his home and life in the wilderness, near the golf course where Roy had been struck by the ball. Through all this, Roy has adapted to Florida's lifestyle and made many friends.
In this book, I noticed a few connections. In the beginning of the story, Roy's reaction is explained when he hears that him and his family are moving to Florida. He cried and hid from his parents because he really liked Montana and was used to it. Some people cam relate, because they do not want things to change after they have adapted. I also acknowledged Roy's huge level of curiosity on the running boy. Roy was interested in the running boy, and chases after him, as a result of this curiosity. I can relate because I am the kind of person that tries to get a closer look of something that I find interesting, dubious, funny, etc. because I am curious. I also noticed that Roy's apology letter to Dana Matherson for punching him consisted of a mildly sarcastic tone, because he did not believe it was fair to apologize to him, for Dana nearly strangled him to death, leaving marks on his neck. And he only punched Dana to defend himself. This connects to a book I read called The Lightning Thief, where the main character, Percy, is accused of interrupting his stepfather's poker game and is asked to apologize for it. He said something along the lines of, "I am so sorry for interrupting your very important game", because he did not think it was fair to apologize when the stepfather made him the center of attention when he walked into the apartment, where the poker game took place, interrupting his own poker game. These connect because in both novels, the main character apologizes in a sarcastic tone because of what he believed.
I would recommend this book to people who like stories that consist of suspense. Some parts of this book consisted of moments of long term suspense. For example, it seemed like a while until I found out if Roy and the running barefoot boy would ever meet, and it was definitely a while until I found out who was vandalizing the construction site. I encountered quite a few moments of suspense while reading this book, wondering what will happen next and I could not wait to get to the next page. This book did consist of a few moments that I found somewhat exciting and consisting of action, but in my opinion the main factor is the suspense that had me constantly hooked to this book. This book did excite me but not a whole lot. I conclude that if you like stories that will have you in suspense, not wanting to stop reading until you find out what happened, you should consider reading this book.
