I grew up loving Carl Hiaasen’s 2002 debut young reader novel, Hoot. The basic story is about some children who realize that a pancake house is going to be built on an owl habitat. They then work together to stop construction from destroying the owls’ home. Along the way, the kids raise important concerns about Florida’s environment being destroyed in the name of progress. When I saw he was one of the possible columnists to review, I jumped at the chance to read his work. Before this, I thought he was a children’s author and knew nothing of his other work.

It seems that when Hiaasen wrote Hoot, he was writing about something he finds very important. A recent article of his, “When it comes to saving Florida’s environment, DeSantis gets it — so far,” is about Florida governor Ron DeSantis’ plans for how to help Florida’s environment. Hiaasen talks about the red tide and blue green algae that has been hurting Florida’s beaches. Hiaasen points out that DeSantis is doing something right by acknowledging that these issues are not temporary inconveniences, but are deep issues that have the potential to ruin Florida’s economy and the livelihood of her citizens. However, Hiaasen reminds the reader that DeSantis accepted donations from agriculture companies, which are some of the main polluters of Florida’s water. He also mentions that DeSantis has failed to pass bills that would put restrictions on pollution-causing behaviors from the agriculture companies. Hiaasen basically explains that, while DeSantis is coming around to how big of an issue this pollution is, he has exhibited a concerning pattern of behavior surrounding the issue.

This column is well-written. Hiaasen leads in with some positives about DeSantis. This shows that Hiaasen is actually paying attention to what DeSantis says and does, rather than hearing a sensational detail and then sneezing out a clickbait article. Hiaasen does start to bash DeSantis with negative ways of speaking towards the end of the article. This shows Hiaasen’s passion for the issue more than his hatred for DeSantis. After all, someone who wrote an award-winning children’s book on this subject must consider it an important issue.

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