Scat (2009)

Could work as a crossover. Great characters with some very much like Hiaasen's adult book characters. Good story line with enough adventure and action to keep kids reading. Ecology, panthers, Florida! ( )

Although the buffoonery of the bad guys is a little over the top, this is a great story with Hiaasen's trademark quirky characters. The mystery has plenty of twists in the first half of the book, and readers will be kept guessing about what really happened to Mrs. Starch when she disappeared into the Black Vine Swamp. And of course, Hiaasen's passion about saving endangered species comes through in an icing-on-the-cake, utterly un-didactic way. ( )

Listened to Listening Library audio narrated by Ed Asner. At first I found Asner's narration to be a relief since I had not been happy with the last few audiobooks' narrators, and he did do very well with the actual narrative sections, but it turned out that dialogue was a bit of a problem. While Asner did his best to differentiate voices, he has such a distinct, gruff kind of voice that the characters all ended up sounding like some variation of Ed Asner.

The story was very typical Hiaasen: Florida setting - check; environmental them - check; irresponsible/ineffective adults - check, wacky, screwball characters - double check! There were so many issues going on here that I think they overwhelmed the story some though and I simply can't believe that parents would pay the money for a private school run the way the Truman School is described. Still, this was definitely fun and worth the time. I'd recommend reading over listening though. ( )

This is a great book in which a crime is committed, a kid framed, and others trying to unravel the case while helping an endangered panther in Florida. ( )

Scat is a good book about a boy named Nick who goes to a private school. He has a best friend named Marta who is in the same biology class as Nick. There teacher is Mrs. Starch, one of scariest teachers in the school. One day they go on a feildtrip and theres a wildfire. They have to all leave early, when somebody left thier asma inhialer somewhere in the swamp. Mrs. Starch goes back to get it, but never comes back. Their are rumors around the school about what happened to Mrs. Starch. Nick and Marta want to figure out where she is so they go to her house and they meet a guy named Twilly. Twilly was inside of Mrs. Starches house, so Nick and Marta thought that he killed Mrs. Starch. They eventually find out that on the day of the feild-trip that Mrs. Starch was lost in the fire whe Twilly came to the rescue, and got her safe. He took her to his camp in the swamp. He had a baby panther. Twilly told Mrs. Starch that this baby panther is going to die soon if he/she doesnt get it mothers milk. They got sepperated and Twilly was trying to get them back together. Twilly needed help so Mrs. Starch stayed with him to help out the panther cub. Nick and Marta finally figure out why Mrs. Starch is missing. They help out and get the panther mother and the cub back together. Mrs. Starch is actually a very generous and kind person on the inside, but nobody knew until they found out where Mrs. Starch was. Mrs. Starch comes back to the school and everything is back to normal. Nicks dad is back from the war and hes ok. This book was good, but i think it could have been better. ( )