Hoot by Carl Hiassen (#40, Reader's Choice)

Guilty as charged. This is another Young Adult book but before you go making judgments, it was of substantial length and it won the Newbury Book Award. This was a quick read but that doesn't mean it wasn't good. While I thought the ending was a bit cliche, I did enjoy it. Hiassen presents a story that is both comical and serious. The main character, Roy, learns to stand up for not only himself, but also for that which he believes in and he teaches other people to do the same without meaning to. This would be a good novel to teach to perhaps a fourth or fifth grade class. It does have a moral background and it does juggle that ever important question of what is right and what is wrong when the line between the two becomes blurred.

I laughed out loud a couple times while reading, mainly because there is a character, the vice principal of the school, who has one stray black hair on her upper lip. Roy fixates on this hair when he is forced to go see her at various times throughout the story and the things he says are hilarious. Last night I had to read a line to my sister because it was just too funny not to share with someone.