Chomp by Carl Hiaasen

4^th Grade and Up

When Wahoo Cray’s dad – a professional animal wrangler – takes a job with a reality TV show called ‘Expedition Survival!’ Wahoo figures he’ll have to do a bit of wrangling himself to keep his dad from killing Derek Badger, the show’s boneheaded and egotistical star. But the job keeps getting more complicated: Derek Badger insists on using wild animals for his stunts; and Wahoo’s acquired a shadow named Tuna – a girl who’s sporting a shiner courtesy of her father and needs a place to hide.

As great as the first three books are, this one is my favorite. Non-stop laughs and non-stop action. This book doesn’t slow down for a second.

If you’re a fan of survival-themed nature shows, you’ll love this story. You get to learn what goes on behind the scenes and just how much they fake. When it comes to a show like Expedition Survival, they fake a lot of stuff. Mostly because their star, Derek Badger, is a complete moron. Derek Badger is pretty much a wannabe Steve Irwin, only worse. I won’t give too much away but reading about how much he stinks was enjoyable for me. Hopefully it will be enjoyable for you too.

Wahoo lives a pretty amazing life. His dad’s a professional animal wrangler and has a whole zoo in his backyard. I love books about kids with not normal lives. But you can probably already tell that from past book posts.

I love Florida’s animal population. It is so vast and a lot of them are mentioned in this story. Here are a few honorable mentioned: Alligators, Burmese pythons, bobcats and snapping turtles.

Scat by Carl Hiaasen

4^th Grade and Up

When Mrs. Starch, the most feared biology teacher in Florida, goes missing during a school trip to the Black Vine Swamp, her class is secretly relieved. The school principal tries to cover it up as a 'family emergency', but Nick and Marta just aren't convinced. They think it's much more likely to have something to do with Smoke, the local troublemaker - whose run-ins with Mrs. Starch are infamous - and decide to do some investigating of their own.

But there's more going on in Black Vine Swamp than either one of them could guess. And Nick and Marta will have to reckon with an eccentric eco-avenger, a stuffed rat named Chelsea, a crooked oil prospector, a singing substitute teacher, and an angry Florida panther before they really begin to see the big picture.

You really need to pay close attention to everything mentioned in this story because the subject has a tendency to change without warning. One minute you’re reading about one character then the next minute the book is talking about an entirely different character.

Carl Hiaasen has had some pretty far out characters in the first two books but the substitute teacher in this book is completely out of left field. This guy is an absolute whack job and that’s putting it nicely. You’ll have to read the book yourself to find out just how weird this guy really is.

As a bonus, here’s a picture of a Florida panther: