With author Carl Hiaasen’s new release, Star Island, I was reminded of his great ventures into young adult literature in recent years. I should have guessed he could be better than most authors at the crossover. Remove the strippers and guns from his adult novels and you have characters that easily stand up to the “so what?” scrutiny of a Jr. High kid.

Amazon.com Review

Roy Eberhardt is the new kid–again. This time around it’s Trace Middle School in humid Coconut Grove, Florida. But it’s still the same old routine: table by himself at lunch, no real friends, and thick-headed bullies like Dana Matherson pushing him around. But if it wasn’t for Dana Matherson mashing his face against the school bus window that one day, he might never have seen the tow-headed running boy. And if he had never seen the running boy, he might never have met tall, tough, bully-beating Beatrice. And if he had never met Beatrice, he might never have discovered the burrowing owls living in the lot on the corner of East Oriole Avenue. And if he had never discovered the owls, he probably would have missed out on the adventure of a lifetime. Apparently, bullies do serve a greater purpose in the scope of the universe. Because if it wasn’t for Dana Matherson… In his first novel for a younger audience, Carl Hiaasen (Basket Case, etc.) plunges readers right into the middle of an ecological mystery, made up of endangered miniature owls, the Mother Paula’s All-American Pancake House scheduled to be built over their burrows, and the owls’ unlikely allies–three middle school kids determined to beat the screwed-up adult system. Hiaasen’s tongue is firmly in cheek as he successfully cuts his slapstick sense of humor down to kid-size. Sure to be a hoot, er, hit with middle school mystery fans. (Ages 10 to 15) –Jennifer Hubert

Grind Show Book Review

As in his adult novels, Hiaasen pulls his stories from America’s favorite crazy state, Florida. In this eco-thriller for grades five and up, Mrs. Starch, an academically-feared biology teacher disappears during a field trip to the Everglades. Did the fabled black panther of the Black Vine Swamp get her, or was it the class delinquent that finally made good on his promise? And what’s going on with the shadowy oil men creeping through the swamps? (The ghosts of BP executives, perhaps.)  Nick and Marta seek to find the answers. As always Hiaasen’s characters are beautifully quirky, and he does an excellent job infusing them with emotion a young reader can respond to. His novel’s long-standing theme of secretive environmental menaces remains intact in the plot. As an adult reader, it leaves us rooting for the idealism of the young protagonists against the forces of abundant greed.