Welcome to the Carl Hiaasen Literary Cafe!
In this online activity, you will visit 3 stations and follow the directions on the web page for each station. This will include using some of the databases you have recently learned about to search and read more about a topic related to the Hiaasen books, Hoot, Flush, Scat, Chomp, and Skink.
Read and follow carefully the directions in the box Directions for this Cafe Station on each web page.
Directions For This AUTHOR STUDY Cafe Station:
Carl Hiaasen is the author of many adult and children’s novels. At this café station you will learn about Hiaasen, his life and work and his thoughts on writing.
Work in pairs and follow these directions to learn about Hiaasen and his books.
Directions:
1. Scroll down to the Carl Hiaasen Biography box and follow the directions to search the GALE In Context - Middle School database for an article about Carl Hiaasen. Read the identified paragraphs.
2. Then click on the link to view the Flush Booktrailer and Interview with Hiaasen
3. Last, answer the questions on your handout using the database article and book trailer to help you. Share your answers with your group.
Optional: If time, view the other videos Hiaasen Discovers Eragon, Writing Tips and the book trailer videos.
Carl Hiaasen Biography:
1. DATABASE: GALE In Context - Middle School
2. Click this link to view Flush Booktrailer and Interview with Hiaasen
Wahoo Cray lives in a zoo. His father is an animal wrangler, so he's grown up with all manner of gators, snakes, parrots, rats, monkeys, snappers, and more in his backyard. The critters he can handle. His father is the unpredictable one. When his dad takes a job with a reality TV show called "Expedition Survival!", Wahoo figures he'll have to do a bit of wrangling himself--to keep his dad from killing Derek Badger, the show's boneheaded star, before the shoot is over. But the job keeps getting more complicated. Derek Badger seems to actually believe his PR and insists on using wild animals for his stunts. And Wahoo's acquired a shadow named Tuna--a girl who's sporting a shiner courtesy of her old man and needs a place to hide out. It's anyone's guess who will actually survive "Expedition Survival". . . .
You know it's going to be a rough summer when you spend Father's Day visiting your dad in the local lockup.
Noah's dad is sure that the owner of the Coral Queen casino boat is flushing raw sewage into the harbor-which has made taking a dip at the local beach like swimming in a toilet. He can't prove it though, and so he decides that sinking the boat will make an effective statement. Right. The boat is pumped out and back in business within days and Noah's dad is stuck in the clink.
Now Noah is determined to succeed where his dad failed. He will prove that the Coral Queen is dumping illegally . . . somehow. His allies may not add up to much-his sister Abbey, an unreformed childhood biter; Lice Peeking, a greedy sot with poor hygiene; Shelly, a bartender and a woman scorned; and a mysterious pirate-but Noah's got a plan to flush this crook out into the open. A plan that should sink the crooked little casino, once and for all.
Bunny Starch, the most feared biology teacher ever, is missing. She disappeared after a school field trip to Black Vine Swamp. And, to be honest, the kids in her class are relieved.
But when the principal tries to tell the students that Mrs. Starch has been called away on a "family emergency," Nick and Marta just don't buy it. No, they figure the class delinquent, Smoke, has something to do with her disappearance.
And he does! But not in the way they think. There's a lot more going on in Black Vine Swamp than any one player in this twisted tale can see. And Nick and Marta will have to reckon with an eccentric eco-avenger, a stuffed rat named Chelsea, a wannabe Texas oilman, a singing substitute teacher, and a ticked-off Florida panther before they really begin to see the big picture.
That's life in the swamp, kids.
Unfortunately, Roy's first acquaintance in Florida is Dana Matherson, a well-known bully. Then again, if Dana hadn't been sinking his thumbs into Roy's temples and mashing his face against the school-bus window, Roy might never have spotted the running boy. And the running boy is intriguing: he was running away from the school bus, carried no books, and–here's the odd part–wore no shoes. Sensing a mystery, Roy sets himself on the boy's trail. The chase introduces him to potty-trained alligators, a fake-fart champion, some burrowing owls, a renegade eco-avenger, and several extremely poisonous snakes with unnaturally sparkling tails.