4th 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:
I am intrigued!
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