Hoot!

We went and saw the new movie "Hoot" over the weekend. For anyone who doesn't already know, the book was written by Carl Hiassen, whose writing I really love. He is a faithful supporter of the Florida Everglades and it's flora and fauna, has written many fictional novels and also is a columnist for The Miami Herald. His stuff is always fun, clever, thoughtful and quirky. He always tosses in characters and situations that will just about have you in tears from laughing. Once you read one of his books, you'll want to read them all. My favorite is "Native Tongue", about what happens when a couple of thieves break into a wildlife amusement park and steal a pair of rare blue-tongued voles. The park then has to decide what to do, especialy since they DON'T want it to be known that the rare animals are a fraud, and all about the problems of dying rodent tongues blue. Freakin' hilarious.

This movie/book 'Hoot' though, is about some kids that discover that a national pancake house chain plans on building a new restaurant on land that someone is already living and raising youngsters on...burrowing owls. Anyone who has ever pulled up a survey stake or two in their time or otherwise considers themselves an ecowarrior, has a fondness for George Hayduke, is a rebel or likes to see the good guys win should see it, and read the book. It is also VERY beautifully filmed, set in Florida. No surprise ending, you can see it coming a mile off, but it's just a good film. We took our 6 year old to see it, and it was such a pleasure to see a movie that didn't insult anyone's intelligence and did not involve bathroom humor or characters simply hitting each other in the misbegotten notion that that is what kids today find 'funny'.

Very glad they made this book into a movie, although it wasn't the first. Hope many more follow. :)