The Cats of Roxville Station by Jean Craighead George

The Cats of Roxville Station by Jean Craighead George is about Ratchet, a young stray cat who makes her home near the train station in Roxville. She had been mistreated by people in the past, so she is very wary of humans. In the field near the train station, Ratchet becomes aware of many different creatures - a fox, an owl, a snake, a racoon - along with several other stray cats. All of the cats find a home in the basement of an old house, needing repairs. Mike, the foster child of the woman who owns the house has seen Ratchet around and really wants to keep her as his own. The only problems are that his foster mother won't allow it, and Ratchet is terrified of him. Mike works on them both by fixing up his foster mother's deceased husband's boats to sell, thus earning money for themselves and for cat supplies.

This was a cute story. There was a lot of factual information in this book about the ways animals communicate with one another and with people. There was also a lot of information about habitats for animals. It was a nice mixture between a fictional story and factual information. I have read other books by Jean Craighead George including Julie of the Wolves and My Side of the Mountain.

Scat by Carl Hiaasen

Scat by Carl Hiaasen is about Nick, a freshman at Truman, a fancy private school. He and his friend, Marta, are in biology class together with the worst teacher of all time, Mrs. Starch. She is rude, mean, strict, and worst of all, she makes fun of the students. Mrs. Starch picked on the wrong student one day (Duane Scrod Jr., otherwise known as Smoke). He bit her pencil in half and ate it - lead and all! The following day, the class went on a field trip to the Black Vine Swamp, near their Florida home. Smoke didn't show up for school that day. Soon after the groups of kids marched into the swamp, they smelled smoke and heard Mrs. Starch's blowhorn, signaling danger and for everyone to return to the bus. One student left her asthma inhaler in the swamp, so Mrs. Starch went back to find it. That was the last time anyone saw her. Some strange things began happening after that... Libby Marshall's inhaler mysteriously showed up on her back porch, a letter arrived at Truman stating that Mrs. Starch needed to take a leave of absence for a "family emergency", and Smoke came back to school wearing clean clothes and toting his homework. Nick and Marta decided it was their duty to figure out exactly what happened in the swamp and where their teacher actually went.

I really liked this book. Carl Hiaasen always writes about Florida, and he always writes about saving the environment. In Hoot, he wrote about saving some burrowing owls and their habitat from a pancake house development, in Flush, he wrote about a shifty casino boat owner dumping human waste into the Florida ocean waters, and in Scat he wrote about saving the endangered Florida panther and the Everglades. I always like reading about the ingenious ways his characters find to solve the mystery and defeat the "bad guy". This book, like Hoot and Flush, was funny, touching, and had a positive message about preserving our environment.

Flush by Carl Hiaasen

Flush by Carl Hiaasen is about Noah and Abbey Underwood, siblings who are out to prove that a local casino boat owner is poisoning their beach with toilet waste. Noah and Abbey's dad recently got into trouble with the law (again) by sinking Dusty Muleman's casino boat. To make a point and to get the media involved in his cause, Paine Underwood decided to remain in jail facing criminal charges! When Noah and Abbey hear their mother talking about divorce, they know it is time to come up with a plan to save their family and prove Dusty's guilt. They call their plan Operation: Royal Flush!

This is the second time I've read this book, and I love it just as much as ever! Carl Hiaasen always brings in environmental issues into his stories in such a creative and compelling way. It makes me want to go out and save the world! This is one of the 2008-2009 Maud Hart Lovelace Nominees.