Owls (novel)
Owl (Original title: Hoot ) is a young adult novel by Carl Hiaasen , first published in 2002. It is an environment - crime . The German translation is by Birgitt Kollmann and was first published in 2003 by Beltz & Gelberg , Weinheim, Basel and Berlin.
action
The teenager Roy Eberhardt moves with his parents from Montana to the small town of Coconut Cove in Florida . Since his father works for the Justice Department, he has already made a number of moves. Roy misses the mountains and the snow of Montana and finds it difficult to get used to the flat land and the heat of his new home.
He is also bullied in school and on the school bus by the taller and stronger Dana Matherson. He also collides with the sporty Beatrice Leep, who harasses him because of it.
The action begins when Roy sees a boy on the bus who is walking barefoot next to the school bus without stepping on it. From Garrett, with whom he befriends, he learns that the boy should actually go to the same school, but he remains missing. The next time Roy sees the boy, he jumps out of the bus, curious, and follows him. When he catches him, it turns out that the boy lives in the forest and has snakes. He chases Roy away and tells him to leave him alone. When Roy comes back later to give him a pair of shoes, the stranger is already gone. However, it turns out that he is Beatrice's stepbrother, who runs away from home, a dysfunctional family with a mother who puts him in homes.
At the same time, the efforts of a restaurant chain called Mama Paula , which wants to set up one of their branches on a piece of land, are described. However, the work repeatedly falls victim to vandalism, which always delays the start of construction. Surveying posts are torn out, crocodiles are placed in the toilet and a police car is painted with paint. Officer Delinko, a policeman who was supposed to guard the property, fell asleep and was therefore demoted, aroused a personal interest in solving the puzzle. Although he and the idiot surveillance engineer (the security guard) lie in wait, it is always possible to jeopardize the approaching cornerstone of the restaurant, which is to be celebrated in public. Among other things, water moccasins , a dangerous species of snake, suddenly appear on the property and chase away the Rottweiler bought as watchdogs .
Roy himself, who injured Dana in a scramble, sees himself exposed to the vengeance of the bully and at the same time is drawn into the actions of Beatrice's brother "Fischfinger", who wants to prevent Mama Paula from building. He is responsible for the destruction on the property, but pursues honorable purposes: Rabbit owls live there , who raise their young and whose habitat would be destroyed by the work of the bulldozers. Roy discovers that the birds are Florida state environmental protection regulations and that Mama Paula would need a building permit . But this is not the case.
On the day of the laying of the foundation stone, on which a high-ranking employee of Mama Paula , dignitaries and the city's press as well as the actress who gave it its name, Kimberly Lou Dixon, appear, Roy and Beatrice mobilized the classmates for a demonstration. There is a confrontation between the employee Chuck Muckle and the students. When the situation escalates and Kimberly Dixon joins the demonstrators, the company refrains from any further construction work and transfers Muckle.
Attempts to reintegrate "Fischfinger", whose real name is Napoleon Bridger Leep, into his family again fail and he escapes without ever reappearing. Dana Matherson, however, ends up in the educational institution. Roy has gradually made friends with his new home and makes new friends.
Awards
The novel was one of the Agatha Children Nominees in 2002 , was among the nominees for the Newbery Medal in 2003 and came third in the 2005 Young Readers Choice Award .
filming
In 2006 , a film version was made under the direction of Will Shriner , who also wrote the script. The leading roles are Logan Lerman , Brie Larson and Cody Linley , with supporting roles Luke Wilson , Tim Blake Nelson , Neil Flynn , Robert Wagner , Jimmy Buffett and Robert Donner .
The film had its cinema premiere in the USA on May 5, 2006 and was released in Germany on November 3 of that year on DVD and in theaters. The ending described in the last paragraph was not included in the film.
radio play
In 2009, a radio play version with music, authorized by the Beltz publishing group , was released, produced by the independent radio play label blubb . Tom Raczko , Katrin Berger and Sebastian Langer can be heard in all roles .
Under the title EULEN Live - Die Mitleidstour , the radio play was performed as a live show in 2014 in a revised version with new songs added. In 2016 blubb. a live recording of the radio play, which was made in a nature reserve, on YouTube.