Chomp

by Carl Hiaasen

Hardcover, 2012

Call number

JF HIA

Publication

Knopf Books for Young Readers (2012), Edition: First Edition first Printing, 304 pages

Description

When the difficult star of the reality television show "Expedition Survival" disappears while filming an episode in the Florida Everglades using animals from the wildlife refuge run by Wahoo Crane's family, Wahoo and classmate Tuna Gordon set out to find him while avoiding Tuna's gun-happy father.

User reviews

LibraryThing member Lauralmoe
Finding a book boys will read is always a pleasure. This has it all: adventure, humor, engaging characters and a little romance.
LibraryThing member SebastianHagelstein
A professional animal wrangler in South Florida and his son work with a difficult survival television show host. Funny writing, a really good story, and all characters are important to the plot. Also has a great ending.
LibraryThing member rhonda1111
Review: Chomp by Carl Hiaasen
4 STARS
This was a good name for this book. It had animals, humor, adventure,damsel in distress. and guys in distress. I laughed, smiled & felt sad, hated bad guys and loved the good guys. It had a whole range of characters.
Derek Badger was the star of a survival animal
Show More
show. He was a spoiled brat. His shows were faked and he always killed and ate some bugs or animals he said for survival but he slept in hotels.
Raven was his producer and scoutted for animal wranglers and places to shoot. Made Derek happy.
Mickey Cray was an animal wrangler and had lots of animals in his back yard. Including Alice a big tame aligator, monkeys, raccoons,pythons, smaller aligators and lots more snakes. In the winter a frozen iguna fell out of tree and gave him a concosion thats left him with bad headaches, double vision and not being able to work.
Wahoo was his son who lost a thumb to Alice when he was younger not paying attention. He fed the animals and helped his father. School just let out for summer.
Wahoo mother trains business men in chinese language, but because they were hurting for money took a two month job in China to teach bunch of business men their instead of having them come to her.
Ravan called to hire Mickey for the job and since they were willing to pay so much more Wahoo excepted the job instead of referring them as they had all winter.
Derek not willing to listen to others when they say he can't do somthing got his nose bit. Then he decided to lay down on top of Alice in the water and hug. Then almost drowned when she twisted and turned in the water and Mickey jumped in and rescued him and it was all got on tape. So it was so good footage that he wanted the rest to be all wild animals instead of tame ones that different animal wranglers used,.
While shopping to get ready to go with the show Wahoo and Mickey were at Walmart and he ran into Tuna a classmate who had a blackeye. Who lived in parking lot of Walmart after they lost their home. Her dad drinks and hits her so they invited her along to go camping with them in the everglades where they were going to be filming.
Things keep getting wilder and more happens to Derek and others while they are trying to finsh the show. I would read more books from Carl based on this book.
I was given this ebook from Netgalley in exchange of honest review.
03/27/2011 Random House Children's Books Alfred A Knopf BFYR
Show Less
LibraryThing member kbarnes
I love Hiaasen's books! BUT - "Chomp" is the best one yet. There is such a great deal of character development in this book. And all the characters are just that - characters! This is a romp in the swamp with some of the dumbest people anyone would ever write about and all taking place in the
Show More
Everglades with tons of wild critters just waiting for a snack. Hard to come up with a basic plotline but suffice it to say that this is the story of Wahoo Cray and his dad Mickey. Both are wild animal wranglers and have just signed on to help out on an Everglades episode of a reality TV program called "Expedition Survivor" hosted by the biggest lame brain in tv world. Can the two manage to keep Derek Badger alive despite himself? Add to the mix a young girl named Tuna and her abusive, gun wielding dad (who isn't 'the brightest bulb on the tree') as well as a tourist shop owner and airboat builder named Link - a man whose weight exceeds his intelligence. Oh, I forgot to mention the vampires. This is wild animal kingdom at its most humorous.
Show Less
LibraryThing member lilibrarian
A reality tv show is being filmed in the everglades, and Wahoo and his father have been hired as animal wranglers. Complicating issues are an abused runaway girl, her father, the inept reality show star and a host of quirky South Florida personalities.
LibraryThing member krau0098
This is the fourth of Hiaasen's middle grade/YA eco-themed books. I loved Hoot and Flush, haven't read Scat, yet. This was another fun read that tackles some interesting social and ecological issues. This book wasn't as much of a mystery as the previous books, it was more of a eco-thriller of
Show More
sorts. I didn't like it quite as much as Hoot, but I liked it just as much as Flush.

Wahoo Cray lives with his father and mother and a ton of animals. His father is an animal wrangler and as such has numerous snakes, gators, etc living in his backyard. After being hit in the head by an iguana who fell off a tree Wahoo's dad has been having horrible headaches and trouble working. When Wahoo's mom takes a two month job in China to make ends meet, Wahoo is concerned about how he will manage his dad. Then his dad takes a job as an animal wrangler with a reality TC show called Expedition Survival! Now they have paying work, but when a girl named Tuna joins the team while fleeing her abusive father, things start to get a little crazy.

Like normal with this series of books there are some societal issues discussed: reality TV, cruelty to animals, alcoholism, and abuse. Also like normal all of these issues are meshed in with a story that is quirky and humorous at times.

The fake survivalist that Wahoo's dad is working for is an absolute hoot. He is so crazy and funny and quirky. Wahoo and Tuna are great characters as well; they are faced with some tough situations and do a bang up job of making it through everything fine.

With the crazy survivalist trying to do stranger and stranger survival stunts Wahoo's dad has his hands full keeping the guy alive. Add to this Tuna's drunk gun-slinging dad and you have a book that is more action and thriller than mystery. I did miss the mystery a little bit, but I also enjoyed all the action and zaniness throughout this book.

Overall I really enjoyed this book, it was an entertaining light read. If you have enjoyed Hiaasen's previous YA books (Hoot, Flush, and Scat) then I think you will also enjoy this latest story. It was just a lot of fun and full of crazy situations and quirky characters. A great read for any middle grade or older readers out there, a wonderful action-packed eco-thriller of sorts.
Show Less
LibraryThing member shellyquade2
I was lucky enough to receive an advanced copy of Carl Hiassen's recently released young adult book, Chomp.

Available for sale on March 27, 2012, this book was a lot of fun, while also touching on some dark subject matter.

Essentially, the novel follows the young Wahoo as he helps/watches over his
Show More
father, a professional animal wrangler. Wahoo's father (Mickey) was recently injured, and so income has been tight in the Cray residence. Wahoo's mother conveniently goes on a trip to the other side of the world (China) for work to earn some extra income, which leaves the boys by themselves. Summer has just begun, and Mickey and Wahoo end up assisting with a nature "reality" show featuring a vain and conceited star.

This book is filled with memorable characters, zany situations, but at the same time, isn't merely frivolous fun. The characters definitely aren't perfect, but they are a pleasure to get to know.

Quick warning: there is a young female character who is the victim of physical abuse from her father. Due to this violent subtext, if your child(ren) is/are reading this book, you might want to talk openly about physical abuse.
Show Less
LibraryThing member twehking
Great new book for juveniles from Carl Hiassen. Set in the Florida Everglades, "Chomp" follows a animal wrangler's eccentric family. Young Wahoo's dad has suffered a severe concussion from a frozen iguana falling on his head from a tree. He is unable to work and the family is falling into debt
Show More
quickly. As Wahoo's mom takes an assignment in China, Wahoo is left to care for his father. They take a job wrangling animals for a "survivalist" filming an episode in the Everglades. Great character development and a fast-paced funny story. Another great entry by Carl Hiassen. Recommended.
Show Less
LibraryThing member lprybylo
Grade 5 and up
Got to love a book that has named it's main character, Wohoo Cray.
Throw in a father who is an animal wrangler, a TV star, Derek Badger who doesn't know a thing about animals yet is the star of a tv animal show. Great summer read for kids
LibraryThing member LCris
Another great Florida adventure from Hiaasen. This one includes a reality tv star, an animal wrangler and his son. Wahoo lives on the edge of the Florida Everglades with his mom, dad, and a "zoo" full of not too wild animals that his father has rescued. After his dad is hit with a falling iguana,
Show More
Wahoo has to help more with the animals. His mom takes a job teaching English in China to pay bills so Wahoo is in charge of his dad. When a job comes along to guide and provide animals for a "survival" tv show, Wahoo convinces his dad to take it and the trouble begins. Filled with the usual shady characters and crazy plot, this book covers a more personal theme than usual for Hiaasen's books for youth: child abuse. Wahoo meets a girl named Tuna, sporting a black eye that she received from her alcoholic father. While the author handles the subject lightly it makes this title more for older elementary and middle school readers.
Show Less
LibraryThing member bjkelley
This is my third Hiaasen juvenile book and while the story was good, the plot was pretty familiar from the last two I have read . Since the book is written for MUCH younger readers than me, maybe this wouldn't be as much a problem for them.
LibraryThing member mbklibrary
Another funny misadventure in Florida from Hiassen. This book poked fun at reality tv series(that aren't very real)as the star of a survival series goes missing in the Everglades. Well you would think no one would be worried as he is a survivalist isn't he, but no we find out that isn't quite how
Show More
it happens as chaos erupts and a full scale manhunt ensues. Add to that the loveable characters Wahoo and Tuna, a few other dysfunctional and interesting characters and you have a romping good disaster of a situation.
Show Less
LibraryThing member skstiles612
One of my favorite places to visit is the Florida Everglades. It is only a few hours south of where I live, and a place I consider to be extremely beautiful and dangerous. There is a particular tourist attraction that takes customers on an airboat ride. My first trip with them was thrilling because
Show More
we had someone with a Steve Irwin personality. He loved describing everything; birds, plants, gators, the whole eco-system of the Everglades. The highlight was getting to hold a live alligator. When I was given the opportunity to read and review Chomp by Carl Hiaasen I was so excited. It had gators, reality TV, and the Florida Everglades. In my mind it was everything you could ask for in a book.

The story starts off funny, with a serious undertone that runs through it. Wahoo’s father has been unable to work since a frozen iguana fell from a tree and hit him in the head causing a concussion. His mother has picked up the slack. Now she has been called out of the country to teach her clients for a few months. With their finances in a mess she takes the job, leaving her husband and the zoo in Wahoo’s hands. Shortly after she leaves, Wahoo’s dad receives a call from “Expedition Survival” wanting to use some of their animals in their reality TV show. Wahoo’s father Mickey accepts and tries his hardest to work through his pain. Then he meets Derek, the biggest jerk.

Derek was one of those characters that you will love to hate. He is so full of himself as a star that he thinks when he snaps his fingers people should jump. He makes decisions that could get him killed just because he believes what everyone on the show tells him. This puts not only himself in danger, but also those around him.

I loved Wahoo’s character. He not only truly cares about the animals but about people. The story is full of bullies. Derek bullies everyone on his show into doing what he wants. Tuna’s father is the biggest bully of all. Tuna is the young girl who shows up to hide from her abusive father. We get a good look at reality TV and it makes you wonder how real it is. Like Hiaasen’s previous books, “Hoot”, “Flush”, and “Scat”, we find environmental themes running throughout this book. It is another great book to add to the shelf, to your collection of books by this great author. I can’t wait to put this on my shelf at school. The timing could not be better. We are currently reading “Flush” as a class. I know I will have students “chomping at the bit”.
Show Less
LibraryThing member zoelee15
I love this book because it's a mix of some adventure and a tiny bit of humor .
LibraryThing member mojomomma
I didn't realize this was a young adult book when I choose it as an ebook from my library. I knew I liked the Hiassen books I had read in the past and this one didn't disappoint, either. Wahoo and his dad Mickey are down-on-their-luck wildlife wranglers who are hired by a cable TV show to help them
Show More
tape a show in the Everglades. The star of the show, Derek Badger, is a Steve Irwin wanna-be, complete with the Australian accent, but he doesn't know anything about wild animals. His show is carefully taped so that he appears to be this survivalist expert when in fact, a helicopter picks him up each day and he lives in the most luxurious hotel available while he is taping on location. All Derek is good at is promoting himself. A bat bite causes Derek to run away from his crew and meanwhile Wahoo's friend who accompanies him and his Dad into the Everglades to escape an abusive alcoholic father is also being pursued. Lots of snakes and gaters and a fair share of rednecks in this quick read, but some serious stuff, too.
Show Less
LibraryThing member peggygillman
Cute - listened to it in the car. Nothing much more to say.
LibraryThing member brianinbuffalo
Expect to bump into the bizarre when delving into a Hiaasen book. The characters in "Chomp" are exactly what Hiaasen fans crave: quirky, humorous and memorable -- albeit somewhat stereotypical. As a juvenile fiction book, it wins points for skillfully blending ecology, animal rights and reality
Show More
television into an engaging and entertaining literary safari. A neat spinoff benefit is that readers will learn some fascinating facts about a number of exotic critters. It's certainly not Dickens, Hemingway or Faulkner. But that's not what Hiaasen devotees are looking for in a book. While the outlandish plot twists become a bit "much" for some adult readers at the tail (pun intended) end of this tome, "Chomp" is still well worth the read.
Show Less
LibraryThing member br13kasp
The book Chop by Carl Hiassen was a very well written book. Carl's books are usually about animals, and that is even better because i am very interested in animals. The book Chomp is about a TV show about a guy who "stays out" in the wild "alone" But he really pretends to endure the harsh
Show More
wilderness and instead leaves the wild filming spot and spends his nights in a luxury hotel, eating ice cream sundaes while the rest of the crew camps out in the wild rain or shine.
It really expresses the way that Carl feels about animals and the relations people have to them. One of the main characters in the book's name is Tuna. Her father abuses her so she hitches a ride to be on the crew of this film. Carl also expresses the way he feels about that in his writing as well.
This book was a very well written book and i thought it was very adventurous. In Chomp, many of the characters realized how important animals are to our environment.
Show Less
LibraryThing member A_Reader_of_Fictions
I've read several of Carl Hiaasen's books for adults, but this is my first expedition into his fare for younger readers. He definitely brings his characteristic humor and absurdism to his works for younger readers, too. In fact, I think I liked this better than some of his books for adults that
Show More
I've read.

The characters are a seriously wacky bunch. Wahoo lost his right thumb trying to show off to a girl; obviously, he really knows what girls like. Mickey has perpetual double vision because of getting hit on the head by that iguana. Derek is a chubby, klutzy survivalist star. Tuna, my personal favorite, dreams of being a taxonomist.

From the names, the plot, the first sentence, etc, you can probably tell that this is a silly book. There are a couple of serious themes, but, mostly, this is just a hilarious adventure. Make yourself some popcorn, sit back and prepare to laugh heartily!

If you like Dave Barry's Big Trouble, you'll undoubtedly enjoy Chomp.

Rating: 3.5/5
Show Less
LibraryThing member KimJD
Grades 5-8:
When Wahoo's dad, a well-respected animal wrangler, is approached by a reality TV show to provide the animals for the show, Wahoo realizes quickly that it's going to be up to keep some diplomacy in the interactions. His dad, Mickey, doesn't suffer fools gladly, and Derek Badger, the star
Show More
of Expedition Survival! is not nearly the survivalist that he likes to portray himself as. As Wahoo and Mickey prepare to accompany the crew deep into the Everglades, they pick up a classmate of Wahoo's who is running away from an abusive father. While this story does not have the ecological overtones of Hiaasen's previous YA novels, there's plenty of action, and his tongue-in-cheek portrayal of the foolishness of reality TV shows will be appreciated by his fans. Hiaasen, like Mickey, doesn't suffer fools gladly.
Show Less
LibraryThing member nmele
I started this not aware it was a young adult novel. If you've ever wondered what a young adult novel by Carl Hiaasen is like, it's like his adult fiction except not quite--not quite--so over the top, no thugs with weed whackers for arms for example. But funny and well written and deadly satirical.
LibraryThing member michelleleister
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, and snappers 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
Show More
Survival!, Wahoo figures he'll have to do a bit of wrangling himself—to keep his dad from killing Derek Badger, the show's inept and egotistical star, before the shoot is over. But the job keeps getting more complicated. Derek Badger foolishly believes his own 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 father and needs a place to hide out.
They've only been on location in the Everglades for a day before Derek gets bitten by a bat and goes missing in a storm. Search parties head out and promptly get lost themselves. And then Tuna's dad shows up with a gun . . .
Show Less
LibraryThing member RavenswoodPublishing
Book Title: "Chomp”
Author: Carl Hiaasen
Published By: Self-Published
Age Recommended: 10+
Reviewed By: Kitty Bullard
Raven Rating: 5

Review: I am one hundred fifty percent a Carl Hiaasen fan and will definitely be picking up the rest of his books. This particular story had it all, humor, drama,
Show More
excitement and adventure. His writing is superb and his characters come alive, jumping right off the page to dance around in the readers head. There is no doubt he is one of the greatest middle grade/children’s writers of all time. ‘Chomp’ takes place primarily in the Florida Everglades, the story of Mickey Cray and his son Wahoo is one you will fall in love with. After deciding to take on a job with a popular wildlife television show in which their animals will be featured the Cray’s end up in far more of an adventure than they bargained for. Working for the ridiculously insane Derek Badger, they come across some real animals that want to take a bit out of him. With a twist and surprise ending you’ll never suspect, ‘Chomp’ is a book you’ll want to read over and over again and your kids will love it too!
I recommend this title highly and any kid that loves adventure, excitement and no mushy stuff in a book will definitely enjoy this wonderfully written story!
Show Less
LibraryThing member Ashleighnewbold
Wahoo, the main character, has a father wo is an animal wrangler. His mum has to go to china to get money as wahoo's father, mickey, had been hit on the he'd with a frozen iguana. Wahoo gets a call from a tv show, and they take the job. Unfortunately the host is very stupid and nearly dies but
Show More
decides to do make it completely wild. Wahoo ends up taking a girl who has an abusive father. Whilst they are in the Everglades the host runs off and the girl, tuna, has her father chasing after her with a gun.
Show Less
LibraryThing member ref27
Very like Hiaasen's others, with a well-integrated environmentalist stance, determined young people, strange Florida milieu populated by quirky characters, and a fair dose of drama. Fairly formulaic, but a successful formula overall.

Awards

Georgia Children's Book Award (Finalist — Grades 4-8 — 2015)
Kentucky Bluegrass Award (Nominee — Grades 6-8 — 2014)
Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Award (Nominee — Grades 6-8 — 2014)
Iowa Teen Award (Nominee — 2017)
Mark Twain Readers Award (Winner — 2nd Place — 2015)
Sunshine State Young Reader's Award (Nominee — Grades 6-8 — 2014)
Oregon Reader's Choice Award (Nominee — 2015)
Southern Book Prize (Finalist — Children's — 2013)
Florida Book Award (Silver Medal — Young Adult — 2012)
Black-Eyed Susan Book Award (Nominee — Grades 6-9 — 2014)
Maud Hart Lovelace Award (Nominee — 2015)
Best Fiction for Young Adults (Selection — 2013)
The Best Children's Books of the Year (Nine to Twelve — 2013)
Chicago Public Library Best of the Best: Kids (Fiction for Older Readers — 2012)

Pages

304

ISBN

0375868429 / 9780375868429
Page: 1.7729 seconds