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 School Library Journal Review

Gr 5 Up-In Flush (Knopf, 2005), Carl Hiaasen's ecological concerns focus on illegal dumping of raw sewage from a floating casino. Noah Underwood's dad has sunk the gambling ship, the Coal Queen, in protest. Now the elder Underwood is launching a media campaign from his jail cell to raise public awareness since the sewage-spewing ship will soon be back in operation. Though Noah and his younger sister Abbey believe in their father's cause, they also fear their mother will file for divorce if he continues to react so outrageously to environmental issues. After a few false starts and run-ins with the casino owner's son and the ship's hired goon, the siblings come up with a plan to use food coloring to expose the hazardous dumping. Working with Shelly, the casino's bartender, and aided by a mysterious white-haired man, Noah and Abbey set their trap, but end up adrift off the Florida Keys. Rescue and an unexpected family reunion make their successful exposure of the corrupt casino owner even sweeter. It takes a few more plot twists before the Coral Queen is closed forever, and by then Noah's parents have learned better ways to manage their marital problems. Michael Welch's narration neatly balances the protagonist's earnest youthfulness with the story's humor. In the manner of Hoot (Knopf, 2002), Hiaasen's award-winning first foray into young adult novels, Flush deals with serious ecological and personal issues. With good insight into real world relationships plus a mix of solid citizens and offbeat good guys, this audiobook has broad appeal and will be valued in middle school, high school, and public libraries.-Barbara Wysocki, Cora J. Belden Library, Rocky Hill, CT (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. From the Hardcover edition. 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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