YA Book Recommendation - Hoot by Carl Hiaasen

With a Florida setting and pro-environment, antidevelopment message, author, Carl Hiaasen returns to familiar turf for his first novel for young readers. Characteristically quirky characters and comic twists will surely gain the author new fans. A young runaway boy is on a mission to protect the miniature owls that live in burrows underneath a proposed pancake restaurant. Roy, who has recently moved to Florida from Montana, befriends the homeless boy (nicknamed Mullet Fingers) and takes up his cause, as does the runaway's stepsister. Ages 10-up.