SCAT

Hiaasen, Carl
SCAT
Alfred A. Knopf, 2009

Carl Hiaasen continues with another environmental book with SCAT. His other books for children are Hoot, about endangered owls, and Flush, about dumping toxic waste in the water.

Nick and Marta go to school at Truman School in southwestern Florida. They have the strangest and strictest biology teacher in the school, Mrs. Starch. Everyone is afraid of Mrs. Starch except for Duane "Smoke" Scrod Jr. When an all-day field trip is scheduled to Black Vine Swamp out near the Big Cypress Preserve strange things start to happen. Mrs. Starch disappears in the swamp when the students are evacuated because of a fire nearby. She doesn't return to school with the students and she is missing.

Nick and Marta think something more is wrong after the police come to school and interview everyone who went on the field trip. Smoke is also missing for a few days but when he does return he is the model student-something very different than he was before the the fire. Things get really interesting when the police come for Smoke and he runs away.

Read the story to find out what happens to Mrs. Starch and Smoke and find out what Scat means in this book.

Mrs. Wardall