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 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”.