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Hoot
Author: Carl Hiaasen
In Indonesia published as Uhu by Gramedia Pustaka Utama
This is perhaps one of the best children/pre-teen novels I’ve ever read in my life. It’s a prize-winning book, anyway. Witty, funny, and sharp, Hoot tells the story of a lovable character named Roy Eberhardt. His family moves all across America several times and ends up in Coconut Cove, Florida. Previously, Roy lived in Montana and he really loved it there that he felt so sorry for moving to a place as flat as Florida. Plus, in his school he is nicknamed ‘cowgirl’ (which makes him feel that he shouldn’t have said that he comes from Montana) and gets bullied by stronger, bigger, smoking Dana Matherson. But it’s because of Dana that one day Roy sees the strange boy running with no shoes outside the school bus. Roy decides to chase the boy one day, and thus he becomes involved with a series of vandalism and chutzpahs intended to save some owls from destruction caused by the building of the 469th branch of Mother Paula’s Pancake House.
Who is the strange boy? Roy only knows him by the name that the boy’s step-sister, Beatrice Leep, uses to call him: Mullet Fingers (because he can catch mullets using his fingers only). The boy has chosen to forget his own name and made Beatrice to vow not to tell his real name to anyone. Mullet Fingers, a regular truant and a master of escaping from horrible schools to where his mother sends him, decides to do all he might in his wild ways to save the owls by himself. But Roy wouldn’t let him do it alone.
Unlike many other troubled teen characters so easily found in today’s ‘teen-lits’, Roy actually has no serious problems except for Dana’s murdering intentions (but as a target, Roy doesn’t easily surrender to Dana; he always fights back either harshly or tactically). Roy has no problems with his grades and his family. His parents are still together, and they seem to love each other and Roy very much. His father works for the Department of Justice and supports Roy’s acts, although the things that Roy does may seem to be worryingly dangerous or even delinquent for other parents. His mother does worry about him oftenly – but just like his father, she basically backs his son because she knows that he is doing the right thing to save the owls.
This background of Roy’s helps us compare and analyze the conditions of other families appear in the book through his eyes. Roy never likes Dana until the end, and nothing can justify Dana’s violent acts towards other, smaller children, but even Roy sympathizes with him when he finds out that Dana lives a hard life at home. The broken nose Roy gave to Dana is quickly accompanied by other, mysterious wounds: Roy feels sure that it’s Dana’s mother who caused the other wounds.
Things are not better in the Leep’s household: Beatrice’s father is too weak for his second wife (Mullet Finger’s mother), who thinks only about herself and even wants to denounce or cast Mullet Fingers away, if only she can. Beatrice, who is very strong and a captain for Trace Middle soccer team, broke one of her teeth when she tried to take back her blood-mother’s ring that her stepmother takes and wears without permission.
The solutions for the children by the end of novel can be a bit disappointing or arguable for some readers. There seems to be no betterment in Dana’s case – he’s sent to jail, and there are no signs of him repenting and promising himself to turn himself into a nicer person to the end. You might think that it’s too harsh. There’s no arguing that Dana is a devilish bully – but after all, he’s very young and Hiaasen could have offered up a more positive light upon Dana, that even the teenage evil can become a better person. After all, we’ve seen how chaotic his family is! And if you think children must stay in school, you might highly want to open up flaming wars about Mullet Finger’s perpetual truancy.
Besides Roy, Beatrice, Dana, and Mullet Fingers, there are other interesting characters in the book, whose lives got intertwined by the owls, such as Police Officer Delinko who dreams of being a detective (but so far does nothing but drifting farther away from his dream thanks to the troubles Mullet Fingers creates) and Curly, the bald foreman in charge of the building of Mother Paula’s next branch in Coconut Cove, who has to deal with alligators in toilets and cottonmouth moccasins around the building site.
(Note: The name Delinko – an officer who’s taking charge of a case involving juvenile delinquents? Hmmmm.)
Hoot - which has made into the big screen – is not only entertaining and full of fun, but it also provides insights into social, economic, ecological and conservational issues. I recommend the book to be read not only by children and teens, but also by adults.
I have explained about the quality of the translation for Ibbotson’s Monster Mission in this post. I should direct similar comments to the translation for Hoot. And I think the Indonesian editor should have added footnotes explaining some things in the text that are not familiar with Indonesians (what is the Audabon Society?). And another: words such as ’See?’, well and yeah can all be translated to Indonesian, why keep them in the text?
Author: Carl Hiaasen
In Indonesia published as Uhu by Gramedia Pustaka Utama
This is perhaps one of the best children/pre-teen novels I’ve ever read in my life. It’s a prize-winning book, anyway. Witty, funny, and sharp, Hoot tells the story of a lovable character named Roy Eberhardt. His family moves all across America several times and ends up in Coconut Cove, Florida. Previously, Roy lived in Montana and he really loved it there that he felt so sorry for moving to a place as flat as Florida. Plus, in his school he is nicknamed ‘cowgirl’ (which makes him feel that he shouldn’t have said that he comes from Montana) and gets bullied by stronger, bigger, smoking Dana Matherson. But it’s because of Dana that one day Roy sees the strange boy running with no shoes outside the school bus. Roy decides to chase the boy one day, and thus he becomes involved with a series of vandalism and chutzpahs intended to save some owls from destruction caused by the building of the 469th branch of Mother Paula’s Pancake House.
Who is the strange boy? Roy only knows him by the name that the boy’s step-sister, Beatrice Leep, uses to call him: Mullet Fingers (because he can catch mullets using his fingers only). The boy has chosen to forget his own name and made Beatrice to vow not to tell his real name to anyone. Mullet Fingers, a regular truant and a master of escaping from horrible schools to where his mother sends him, decides to do all he might in his wild ways to save the owls by himself. But Roy wouldn’t let him do it alone.
Unlike many other troubled teen characters so easily found in today’s ‘teen-lits’, Roy actually has no serious problems except for Dana’s murdering intentions (but as a target, Roy doesn’t easily surrender to Dana; he always fights back either harshly or tactically). Roy has no problems with his grades and his family. His parents are still together, and they seem to love each other and Roy very much. His father works for the Department of Justice and supports Roy’s acts, although the things that Roy does may seem to be worryingly dangerous or even delinquent for other parents. His mother does worry about him oftenly – but just like his father, she basically backs his son because she knows that he is doing the right thing to save the owls.
This background of Roy’s helps us compare and analyze the conditions of other families appear in the book through his eyes. Roy never likes Dana until the end, and nothing can justify Dana’s violent acts towards other, smaller children, but even Roy sympathizes with him when he finds out that Dana lives a hard life at home. The broken nose Roy gave to Dana is quickly accompanied by other, mysterious wounds: Roy feels sure that it’s Dana’s mother who caused the other wounds.
Things are not better in the Leep’s household: Beatrice’s father is too weak for his second wife (Mullet Finger’s mother), who thinks only about herself and even wants to denounce or cast Mullet Fingers away, if only she can. Beatrice, who is very strong and a captain for Trace Middle soccer team, broke one of her teeth when she tried to take back her blood-mother’s ring that her stepmother takes and wears without permission.
The solutions for the children by the end of novel can be a bit disappointing or arguable for some readers. There seems to be no betterment in Dana’s case – he’s sent to jail, and there are no signs of him repenting and promising himself to turn himself into a nicer person to the end. You might think that it’s too harsh. There’s no arguing that Dana is a devilish bully – but after all, he’s very young and Hiaasen could have offered up a more positive light upon Dana, that even the teenage evil can become a better person. After all, we’ve seen how chaotic his family is! And if you think children must stay in school, you might highly want to open up flaming wars about Mullet Finger’s perpetual truancy.
Besides Roy, Beatrice, Dana, and Mullet Fingers, there are other interesting characters in the book, whose lives got intertwined by the owls, such as Police Officer Delinko who dreams of being a detective (but so far does nothing but drifting farther away from his dream thanks to the troubles Mullet Fingers creates) and Curly, the bald foreman in charge of the building of Mother Paula’s next branch in Coconut Cove, who has to deal with alligators in toilets and cottonmouth moccasins around the building site.
(Note: The name Delinko – an officer who’s taking charge of a case involving juvenile delinquents? Hmmmm.)
Hoot - which has made into the big screen – is not only entertaining and full of fun, but it also provides insights into social, economic, ecological and conservational issues. I recommend the book to be read not only by children and teens, but also by adults.
I have explained about the quality of the translation for Ibbotson’s Monster Mission in this post. I should direct similar comments to the translation for Hoot. And I think the Indonesian editor should have added footnotes explaining some things in the text that are not familiar with Indonesians (what is the Audabon Society?). And another: words such as ’See?’, well and yeah can all be translated to Indonesian, why keep them in the text?