Flush

Review by Booklist Review

Gr. 5-8. Hiaasen's second novel exhibits some of the same elements found in his 2003 Newbery Honor Book: Florida local color, oddball adults (buxom and brawny), and a delightful quirkiness. But the sparkle that catapulted Hootinto the limelight isn't quite as brilliant here. Even so, there's plenty to like in this yarn, which, once again, drops an environmental issue into the lap of a kid. Righteous indignation, usually resulting from some sabotage of Florida's natural resources, has gotten Noah Underwood's dad in trouble before. This time, however, Dad's gone too far: he sunk a floating casino. Why? Its owner is dumping human waste in the water. Unfortunately, Dad can't prove it, and that's where Noah and his younger sister, Abbey, come in. The amateur sleuthing puts the sibs into some mildly suspenseful, occasionally amusing, situations, which, as in the previous book, share space with run-ins with a local bully (Noah takes some lumps but gets sweet revenge). An old-fashioned deus ex machina interrupts an otherwise believable setup, but Hiaasen still succeeds at relating an entertaining story while getting across a serious message about conservation and the results of just plain greed. --Stephanie Zvirin Copyright 2005 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

How does Hiaasen follow up his page-turning novel about saving owls in Florida (Hoot)? With a second fast-paced story featuring an environmental theme-this time about ocean pollutants harming turtles' habitats (and the surroundings in general) in the Florida Keys. Welch (TV's Joan of Arcadia) has a compelling, snappy delivery suited to 11-year-old Noah's personality; he's a clever kid who wants to set things right, even when it pits him against shady characters and the local bully. Noah is exasperated over his father's arrest for sinking a casino boat that the man believes is flushing sewage into the ocean. The boy also knows that proving his dad's suspicions could go a long way toward healing his strained family and saving the ocean. Welch handily captures Noah's moods, though not even he can make eccentrics such as Lice Peeking and his burly bartending girlfriend Shelly likable at the outset (they grow on listeners, however). Those who couldn't get enough of Hiaasen's last outing will find plenty to hoot about in this solid recording. Ages 10-up. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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Review by School Library Journal Review

Gr 5-8-Noah and his sister, Abbey, are more understanding of their volatile dad's latest arrest than their mother, who begins talking of divorce. Dad sank the Coral Queen, a casino boat on a Florida Key because, he alleges, its owner, Dusty Muleman, has been illegally dumping raw sewage into the local waters. Soon enough the kids begin trying to gather proof that will vindicate their father and put the casino out of business. The colorful cast includes a drunken lout named Lice who disappears before he can be persuaded to testify against Dusty, his former boss. His rough-around-the-edges girlfriend, Shelly, comes through, though, helping the siblings dump dye in the boat's holding tanks, which finally brings the matter to court. Dusty's son, Jasper, is a chip off the old block, threatening and beating Noah on several occasions until he and, later, Abbey are rescued by a mysterious stranger who turns out to be their grandfather, long ago thought to have died in South America, probably while involved in drug smuggling. As the tale ends, he's back to Colombia to settle old scores. The plot would practically disappear if any one of the major characters had a cell phone, but the environmental story is front and center and readers will be hooked as the good guys try to do the right thing. This quick-reading, fun, family adventure harkens back to the Hardy Boys in its simplicity and quirky characters.-Joel Shoemaker, Southeast Junior High School, Iowa City, IA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Review by Horn Book Review

(Middle School) In his second children's book, Hiaasen hits his stride, offering a great action adventure without a hint of the didacticism that crept into Hoot (rev. 11/02). As is his trademark, he sets this eco-mystery in Florida and peoples it with crooks (Dusty Muleman, who dumps sewage from his gambling boat into Florida's waters); idealists (Paine Underwood, who sinks Muleman's boat in an effort to call attention to the illegal waste disposal); everyday heroes (Noah and Abbey, Paine's children, who finally reveal Muleman's operation and validate their dad's noble gesture); and oddball characters (an old ""pirate"" who shows up throughout the story and a tattooed, hard-living card dealer). While the plot offers enough twists and turns to satisfy even the most serious adventure junkies, it is the multidimensional characters who give the novel its vitality. Hiaasen always shows rather than tells, and that showing creates individuals who are simultaneously noble and petty, quirky and realistic, decent and wayward. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

What's a kid to do when his dad's thrown in jail for an unsuccessful act of ecoterrorism? Why, do it better, of course. Readers first meet Noah Underwood in the visiting room of the Florida Keys jail where his father proudly waits for justice to be done to the owner of the Coral Queen, the casino boat that regularly and illegally dumps raw sewage into the bay. Hiaasen surrounds Noah with his usual cast of supporting characters: a stoic little sister, a hard-drinking bleached-blonde bartender with a heart of gold, various thuggish lowlifes and a mysterious figure who appears from the jungle to save the day. The whole here is rather less than the sum of its parts, as the plot takes some time to take off and Noah's first-person narration necessarily limits the loony heights (or depths) Hiaasen can attain in plumbing the psyches of his villains. But Noah's determination and sense of right comes straight from the author's heart, and readers will cheer as he and his cohorts scuttle once and for all the activities of the Coral Queen. (Fiction. 10+) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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The Coral Queen had gone down stern first in twelve feet of water. Her hull had settled on the marly bottom at a slight angle with the bow aiming upward. She was a big one, too. Even at high tide, the top two decks were above the water line. It was like a big ugly apartment building had fallen out of the sky and landed in the basin. Abbey hopped off my handlebars and walked to the water's edge. She planted her hands on her hips and stared at the crime scene. "Whoa," she said. "He really did it this time." "It's bad," I agreed. The Coral Queen was one of those gambling boats where passengers line up to play blackjack and electronic poker, and to stuff their faces at the all-you-can-eat buffet. It didn't sound like a ton of fun to me, but the Coral Queen was packed to the rafters every night. There was one major difference between Dusty Muleman's operation and the gambling cruises up in Miami: The Coral Queen didn't actually go anywhere. That's one reason it was so popular By Florida law, gambling boats are supposed to travel at least three miles offshore-beyond the state boundaries-before anyone is allowed to start betting. Rough weather is real bad for business, because lots of customers get seasick. As soon as they start throwing up, they quit spending money. According to my father, Dusty Muleman's dream was to open a gambling boat that never left the calm and safety of its harbor. That way, the passengers would never get too queasy to party. Only Indian tribes are allowed to run casino operations in Florida, so Dusty somehow persuaded a couple of rich Miccosukees from Miami to buy the marina and make it part of their reservation. Dad said the government raised a stink but later backed off, because the Indians had better lawyers. Anyway, Dusty got his gambling boat-and he got rich. My dad had waited until three in the morning, when the last of the crew was gone, to sneak aboard. He'd untied the ropes and started one of the engines and idled out to the mouth of the basin, where he'd opened the seacocks and cut the hoses and disconnected the bilge pumps and then dived overboard. The Coral Queen had gone down crosswise in the channel, which meant that no other vessels could get in or out of the basin. In other words, Dusty Muleman wasn't the only captain in town who wanted to strangle my dad on Father's Day. I locked my bike to a buttonwood tree and walked down to the charter docks, Abbey trailing behind. Two small skiffs and a Coast Guard inflatable were nosing around the Coral Queen . We could hear the men in the skiffs talking about what had to be done to float the boat. It was a major project. "He's lost his marbles," Abbey muttered. "Who-Dad? No way," I said. "Then why did he do it?" "Because Dusty Muleman has been dumping his holding tank into the water," I said. Abbey grimaced. "Yuck. From the toilets?" "Yep. In the middle of the night, when there's nobody around." "That is so gross." "And totally illegal," I said. "He only does it to save money." According to my father, Dusty Muleman was such a pathetic cheapskate that he wouldn't pay to have the Coral Queen 's sewage hauled away. Instead his crew had standing orders to flush the waste into the basin, which was already murky. The tide later carried most of the filth out to open water. "But why didn't Dad just call the Coast Guard?" my sister asked. "Wouldn't that have been the grown-up thing to do?" "He told me he tried. He said he called everybody he could think of, but they could never catch Dusty in the act," I said. "Dad thinks somebody's tipping him off." "Oh, please," Abbey groaned. Now she was starting to annoy me. "When wind and the current are right, the poop from the gambling boat floats out of the basin and down the shoreline," I said, "straight to Thunder Beach." Abbey made a pukey face. "Ugh. So that's why they close the park sometimes." "You know how many kids go swimming there? What Dusty's doing can make you real sick at both ends. Hospital-sick, Dad says. So it's not only disgusting, it's dangerous." "Yeah, but-" "I didn't say it was right, Abbey, what Dad did. I'm only telling you why." My father hadn't even tried to get away. After swimming back to the dock, he'd sat down in a folding chair, opened a can of root beer and watched the Coral Queen go down. He was still there at dawn, sleeping, when the police arrived. "So, what now?" Abbey asked. A dark bluish slick surrounded the boat, and the men in the Coast Guard inflatable were laying out yellow floating bumpers, to keep the oil and grease from spreading. By sinking the Coral Queen , my father himself had managed to make quite a mess. I said, "Dad asked me to help him." Abbey made a face. "Help him what-break out of jail?" "Get serious." "Then what, Noah? Tell me." I knew she wasn't going to like it. "He wants me to help him nail Dusty Muleman," I said. A long silence followed, so I figured Abbey was thinking up something snarky to say. But it turned out that she wasn't. "I didn't give Dad an answer yet," I said. "I already know your answer," said my sister. "His heart's in the right place, Abbey. It really is." "It's not his heart I'm worried about, it's his brain," she said. "You'd better be careful, Noah." "Are you going to tell Mom?" "I haven't decided." She gave me a sideways look that told me she probably wouldn't. Like I said, my sister's all right. Excerpted from Flush by Carl Hiaasen All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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