Chomp
Carl Hiaasen
Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, March 2012
ISBN 978-0-375-86842-9
Hardcover (ARC)

Teenager Wahoo Cray doesn’t live the life of the average kid. Having a dad who’s a wildlife wrangler with a private zoo, Wahoo has grown up with alligators, monkeys, birds of all sorts, giant tortoises, snakes, you name it. His dad, Mickey, hasn’t done much running of the business, though, since he got a concussion from being hit on the head by a falling iguana that died in a hard freeze. With money running low, Wahoo’s mom has gone to China on a two-month teaching job and she’s depending on Wahoo to keep an eye on his dad.

Wahoo has always looked after all the animals, including a twelve-foot alligator named Alice with movie credits to her name, and he has—or actually doesn’t have—the missing thumb to prove it (he was showing off to a girl so he can hardly blame Alice). When he takes a call from Expedition Survival! looking for a place to shoot an episode of the reality TV show starring fake wrangler Derek Badger, Wahoo accepts the job on his dad’s behalf. After all, a thousand bucks a day plus animal rental fees is awfully hard to resist when you can’t pay the mortgage. Badger especially wants to shoot scenes with Alice and with Beulah, a fourteen-foot python with a penchant for biting (although she can be persuaded to let go with a slug of liquor).

Who could predict that Derek would go missing in the Everglades after being bitten on the tongue by a bat that crashlanded into his cheesecake crumbs (of course, she wouldn’t have bitten him if he hadn’t tried to eat her for the camera) or that he would convince himself he was going to turn into a vampire? Misappropriated airboats, a drunk with a gun, and a kidnapped Mickey lead to more mayhem and there’s no one ready to come to the rescue except Wahoo and a girl named Tuna Gordon. Can they learn to drive an airboat to get there in time? Will Derek turn into a half-vampire because there’s a half-moon?

Carl Hiaasen never fails to be entertaining and Chomp is no exception. It might be written for young middle-graders but adults will love all the action and craziness, too, and will sort of wish they could visit Wahoo and the family zoo.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, December 2011.