Hoot (2002) is a young adult novel by Carl Hiaasen. Set in Florida, its plot is, to all intents and purposes, a toned-down version of a typical Hiaasen storyline, with a group of schoolkids battling the Establishment in order to protect the environment. They do so by employing a moderate form of ecotage. Nevertheless Hoot is a lesson in democracy as it strongly suggests everyone should stand up for their rights as citizens and for what they believe in.

Outline of the plot

After his family has moved from Montana to Coconut Cove, Florida, young Roy Eberhardt has a hard time adjusting to life in the Sunshine State. Not only does Roy miss the mountains and the snow—at school and even on the school bus, he is bullied by a boy called Dana Matherson. When, one day, he summons all his courage, hits back and breaks Matherson's nose everyone seems to believe it was he who started the fight. The vice-principal even makes Roy write a letter of apology to Dana Matherson.

At the same time a chain of pancake houses is preparing to build a new family restaurant in Coconut Cove. The bulldozers have already been parked on the construction site, but work is delayed again and again when bizarre but effective acts of vandalism occur at night. As a groundbreaking ceremony has already been scheduled and advertised, the company is eager to stop all that sabotage, for example by having the site guarded by trained Rottweilers.

Also at the same time Napoleon Bridger Leep, a boy who has run away from his dysfunctional family and from an institution in which he was put, is hiding in a dilapidated ice-cream truck parked on a junkyard in Coconut Cove. However, one morning he is spotted by Roy Eberhardt when he is running away from the school bus rather than hurrying to join the other kids at the next bus stop. Curious, Roy starts to investigate and, after some initial setbacks, eventually not only makes Napoleon's acquaintance but also convinces the other boy that he can be trusted.

It turns out that Napoleon, who prefers to be called "Mullet Fingers", is responsible for the acts of vandalism that have been committed at the construction site. His motives, however, are honourable: Mullet Fingers wants to save the burrowing owls that live on the site from being killed when the bulldozing begins. The young people succeed in exposing the machinations of those in power—which include illegally removing an environmental impact statement from the official file and taking a bribe—and, eventually, in saving the birds and their habitat.