Awards
2003 Newbery Medal Honor Book
Synopses & Reviews
Clandestine e-mail exchanges, secret trips, fake press releases, and a tree-house standoff are among the clever stunts and pranks the kid heroes pull in this exciting ecological adventure.
“Sibley Carter is a moron and a world-class jerk,” reads Julian Carter-Li in an angry e-mail message meant for his greedy, high-powered uncle. The fateful message sets him on the course to stop an environmental crime! His uncle's company plans to cut down some of the oldest California redwood trees, and it's up to Julian and a ragtag group of friends to figure out a way to stop them. This thrilling, thoughtful debut novel shows the power of determined individuals, no matter what their age, to stand up to wrongdoing.
John and Patricia Beatty Award
(California Library Association)
National Green Earth Book Award
National Outdoor Book Award honorable mention
Carol D. Reiser Book Award
“Fast paced and full of fun . . . Reminds readers that everyone, no matter how large or small, can take action on issues that are important to them.” —School Library Journal
“One of the finest children's novels of the year . . . A true emotional journey full of adventure, friendship, complex morality, trust, lies, and discovery.” —A Fuse #8 Production
Review
"Characteristically quirky characters and comic twists will surely gain the author new fans, though their attention may wander during his narrative's intermittently protracted focus on several adults....[S]everal suspenseful scenes build to the denouement involving the sitcom-like unraveling of a muckity-muck....These, along with dollops of humor, help make the novel quite a hoot indeed." Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
Roy, who is new to his small Florida community, becomes involved in another boy's attempt to save a colony of burrowing owls from a proposed construction site.
Synopsis
This Newbery Honor-winning, hilarious Floridian adventure involves new kids, bullies, alligators, eco-warriors, pancakes, pint-sized owls, and more. A New York Times bestseller
Everybody loves Mother Paula's pancakes. Everybody, that is, except the colony of cute but endangered owls that live on the building site of the new restaurant. Can the awkward new kid and his feral friend prank the pancake people out of town? Or is the owls' fate cemented in pancake batter?
"A wonderful tour de-force." --The Boston Globe
"A rollicking, righteous story." --The Miami Herald
"Yes, it is a hoot."--The Washington Post
Synopsis
This Newbery Honor winner and #1 New York Times bestseller is a beloved modern classic. Hoot features a new kid and his new bully, alligators, some burrowing owls, a renegade eco-avenger, and several extremely poisonous snakes.
Everybody loves Mother Paula's pancakes. Everybody, that is, except the colony of cute but endangered owls that live on the building site of the new restaurant. Can the awkward new kid and his feral friend prank the pancake people out of town? Or is the owls' fate cemented in pancake batter?
Welcome to Carl Hiaasen's Florida--where the creatures are wild and the people are wilder
Synopsis
Unfortunately, Roys first acquaintance in Florida is Dana Matherson, a well-known bully. Then again, if Dana hadnt been sinking his thumbs into Roys temples and mashing his face against the school-bus window, Roy might never have spotted the running boy. And the running boy is intriguing: he was running away from the school bus, carried no books, and-heres the odd part-wore no shoes. Sensing a mystery, Roy sets himself on the boys trail. The chase introduces him to potty-trained alligators, a fake-fart champion, some burrowing owls, a renegade eco-avenger, and several extremely poisonous snakes with unnaturally sparkling tails.
Roy has most definitely arrived in Carl Hiaasens Florida.
Synopsis
The town of Marysville, in upstate New York, where Doug and his family have moved , has six blocks of houses as tiny and beat up as theirs, eighteen houses with flags outside, and one library that, as Doug discovers, is open only on Saturday. On the cool, marbled second floor of the library, he finds a table with a glass case under which there is a huge book opened to a painting of a bird. It is the most terrifying and beautiful picture he has ever seen. It is Audubons Arctic Tern. He imagines drawing it in the air with his fingers. Also at the library Doug meets smart Lil Spicer, whose father owns a deli and who offers Doug a job as a delivery boy. And so begins Dougs Saturday routine: He learns from the librarian, Mr. Powell, about the principles of Audubons art, but some of the plates are mysteriously missing, and Doug vows to make the book whole again. At school, Doug runs into trouble with his teachers, especially the So-Called Gym teacher, which earns him a number of after school detentions. At home, his father, a stern man with quick hands, often brings the unsavory Ernie Eco to dinner, his older brother, Christopher, is accused of stealing, and his oldest brother, Lucas, returns from Vietnam with a bandage covering his burned eyes and in a wheelchair because he has lost his legs. Gary Schmidt interweaves multiple themes of loss and recovery, art and inventiveness, truth and lies in a story teaming with distinctive, unusual characters and invaluable lessons about love, creativity, and survival.
Synopsis
2011 National Book Award Finalist As a fourteen-year-old who just moved to a new town, with no friends and a louse for an older brother, Doug Swieteck has all the stats stacked against him. So begins a coming-of-age masterwork full of equal parts comedy and tragedy from Newbery Honor winner Gary D. Schmidt. As Doug struggles to be more than the and#8220;skinny thugand#8221; that his teachers and the police think him to be, he finds an unlikely ally in Lil Spicerand#8212;a fiery young lady who and#8220;smelled like daisies would smell if they were growing in a big field under a clearing sky after a rain.and#8221; In Lil, Doug finds the strength to endure an abusive father, the suspicions of a whole town, and the return of his oldest brother, forever scarred, from Vietnam. Together, they find a safe haven in the local library, inspiration in learning about the plates of John James Audubonand#8217;s birds, and a hilarious adventure on a Broadway stage. In this stunning novel, Schmidt expertly weaves multiple themes of loss and recovery in a story teeming with distinctive, unusual characters and invaluable lessons about love, creativity, and survival.
Synopsis
In this stunning novel, Newbery Honor winner Gary D. Schmidt expertly weaves multiple themes of loss and recovery in a story teeming with distinctive, unusual characters and invaluable lessons about love, creativity, and survival.
About the Author
2005 Newbery Honor & Printz Honor (
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy)
2008 Newbery Honor (The Wednesday Wars)
Wednesday Wars
"Schmidt...makes the implausible believable and the everyday momentous...a gentle, hopefuly, moving story." --Booklist, starred review
"Another winner...deeply satisfying." --Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Schmidt ... [gets] to the emotional heart of every scene without overstatement ... another virtuoso turn by the author of LIZZIE BRIGHT." Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"Schmidt rises above the novel's conventions to create memorable and believable characters." --Horn Book, starred review
"[An] entertaining and nuanced novel....There are laugh-out-loud moments that leaven the many poignant ones." --School Library Journal
"An accessible, humorous school story, and at the same time, an insightful coming-of-age tale."
--Bookpage
"Fans of ...LIZZIE BRIGHT AND THE BUCKMINSTER BOY may be pleasantly surprised to see Schmidt's lighter, even sillier side." --Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Kids Q&A
Read the Kids' Q&A with Carl Hiaasen