Chomp

January 9, 2012
Hiaasen extends his brand of Florida eco-adventures with this loopy foray into reality TV. Derek Badger, star of Expedition Survival!, arrives to film an Everglades episode, enlisting the services of animal wrangler Mickey Cray, a sort of Dr. Doolittle who specializes in snakes and keeps a 12-foot-long gator named Alice as a pet. Mickey holds his nose but takes the job, assisted by his son, Wahoo, a goodhearted teenager who’s able to handle his father as well as his father handles pythons. Badger, naturally, is a complete fraud, who choppers off to a hotel each evening while mosquitoes dine on his crew. After filming starts, Badger gets lost in the swamp with only his (dim) wits to help him survive. There are no cute owls or endangered panthers to save—tension derives from wondering whether Badger will get himself killed before Mickey does it for him, and a subplot about Wahoo’s friend Tuna, who’s on the run from her abusive father. Not as tightly constructed as Hoot and tamer than Flush, but still pretty hilarious. Ages 10–up. Agent: Esther Newberg, ICM.

May 28, 2012
An animal wrangler named Mickey Cray and his son, Wahoo, whose Florida home and yard house alligators, snakes, and other wildlife, reluctantly take on the job of supplying animals for a reality television show called Expedition Survival!—the host of which, Derek Badger, is actually a dimwitted fraud. Contrasting with amusing scenes of Badger’s less-than-successful tangles with wildlife is a tense plot about Jared—the abusive father of Wahoo’s friend Tuna—who comes to the Everglades with a gun looking for his daughter. But it all has a happy ending, thanks to some heroics from an unlikely source. Narrator James Van Der Beek strikes exactly the right note in his narration: a dry, ironic delivery that lets both the humorous and tense moments play out effectively. He also creates distinctive character voices, particularly memorable are his renditions of Derek (who switches from a petulant American accent to a cheery, fake-Australian accent for the television camera) and the gravelly, menacing Jared. This is an entertaining audio romp with an enjoyable mix of comedy and action. Ages 10–up. A Knopf hardcover.