Flush - Dark Publications

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Product Description
You know it’s going to be a rough summer when you spend Father’s Day visiting your dad in the local lockup.
Noah’s dad is sure that the owner of the Coral Queen casino boat is flushing raw sewage into the harbor–which has made taking a dip at the local beach like swimming in a toilet. He can’t prove it though, and so he decides that sinking the boat will make an effective statement. Right. The boat is pumped out and back in business within days and Noah’s dad is stuck in the clink.
Now Noah is determined to succeed where his dad failed. He will prove that the Coral Queen is dumping illegally . . . somehow. His allies may not add up to much–his sister Abbey, an unreformed childhood biter; Lice Peeking, a greedy sot with poor hygiene; Shelly, a bartender and a woman scorned; and a mysterious pirate–but Noah’s got a plan to flush this crook out into the open. A plan that should sink the crooked little casino, once and for all.

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews: Read 111 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

Richie's Picks: FLUSH October 2, 2005
49 out of 59 found this review helpful

IN the spring of 2002 I wrote about Carl Hiaasen's first children's book, HOOT:

"Carl Hiaasen does an incredible job of showing the different styles of activism that different people resort to. He presents the reader with the contemporary clash of free enterprise versus global ecological issues. He has a lot to say between the lines about parenting, and he has some great insights into the methods of dealing with bullies.

"I've never read his adult books, but I sure hope Hiaasen writes more books for kids. HOOT is one heck of a first step into the world of children's literature."

So I was, of course, ecstatic that both the 2003 Newbery committee and 2003 Best Books for Young Adults committee recognized HOOT.

I was somewhat less thrilled about having to wait three long years for the pleasure of reading a second children's book by Hiaasen. And while FLUSH is a completely different story, everything that delighted me three years ago about reading HOOT is equally applicable to FLUSH.

"The deputy told me to empty my pockets: two quarters, a penny, a stick of bubble gum, and a roll of grip tape for my skateboard. It was pitiful.
" 'Go on inside. He's waiting for you,' the deputy said.
"My dad was sitting alone at a bare metal table. He looked pretty good, all things considered. He wasn't even handcuffed.
" 'Happy Father's Day,' I said.
"He stood up and gave me a hug. 'Thanks, Noah,' he said."

So begins FLUSH, the story of what happens after Paine Underwood pulls the plug on the Coral Queen and willingly gets arrested for doing so.

The Coral Queen is a three-tiered casino boat owned by Dusty Muleman. Dusty has been making a killing off of the boat's operations because he worked a deal with the local Native Americans to park the boat in a marina on their lands, give them a cut of the take and, thus, avoid having to take the customers a few miles offshore to gamble like all the other casino boat operators are required to do. What Noah's dad is so hot about is that he is sure that the raw sewage periodically washing up on Thunder Beach is the result of the Coral Queen's holding tanks being emptied illegally into the water.

A 60 Minutes piece about the author that was broadcast last month, "Florida: 'A Paradise of Scandals' "http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/04/15/60minutes/main688458.shtml, introduces Hiaasen:

"In a little less than a century, the state of Florida has been transformed from a largely uninhabited swamp to the fourth-largest state in the union. And no one has written about that transformation more successfully than Carl Hiaasen.

"Part humorist, part muckraker, his satirical novels about greed, crime and corruption in the Sunshine State have become fixtures on the best-seller list and embraced by influential literary critics who compare him to Mark Twain and H.L. Mencken.

"He is also an award-winning children?s author and a former investigative reporter-turned-columnist for the Miami Herald.

"And he has made a career of documenting, analyzing and interpreting what may be the most bizarre state in the union -- and one, Hiaasen says, is 'a victim of its own geography.' "

In the 60 Minutes interview Hiaasen talked about how being out on the water in his skiff is like church for him. In that regard, reading FLUSH feels like you are peering in even closer at the heart of Carl Hiaasen.

When I discussed HOOT three years ago, I mentioned that it contained humor, a bit of sadness, and a touch of suspense. All three qualities are once again present in FLUSH. So are the wildly quirky characters, from the bully (Jasper Muleman Jr.), to the brute (Luno), to the buxom blonde (Shelly), the bum (Lice Peeking), the bumbling attorney (Mr. Shine), and the mysterious pirate.

Carl Hiaasen is a master at storytelling. That he has utilized his superb talents to once again write a satirical novel about greed, crime and corruption in the Sunshine State for children (and me) is cause for celebration.

Thanks, Carl!

5 out of 5 stars

Terrific Story for Young and Old Alike September 22, 2005
15 out of 21 found this review helpful

In a departure from his zany thrillers, Carl Hiaasen has penned a novel for young adults that is fun, timely and even a bit educational. The young reader will learn a bit about the Florida Keys and about the plague of pollution. And as an added positive attraction, Mr. Hiaasen delivers his usual humor, but then I suppose that is to be expected, it wouldn't be a Carl Hiaasen story if you couldn't laugh as you read through the pages.

In this story children Noah and Abbey Underwood are trying to clear their father's name. It seems Paine, their father, sunk the Coral Queen, one of those off-shore gambling boats, for illegally dumping their waist. A little drastic, to be sure, but that's Mr. Hiaasen's stock in trade, great characters who are over the top. Now it's up to Noah and Abbey to prove the Coral Queen was dumping so they can vindicate their dad. Can they do it? What do you think?

Reviewed by Stephanie Sane

5 out of 5 stars

Not Just for the Young Reader - Five Stars! June 13, 2006
11 out of 13 found this review helpful

This time I didn't make the mistake of not realizing that Flush was a "young readers" book when I ordered it as I did with Hoot, his first such novel. I didn't care, because based on my prior experience, I expected an entertaining and pure Hiaasen adventure and I was not disappointed.

Hiaasen has a way of writing his pro-ecology novels whether for us seasoned citizens or for younger readers which demands constant refueling on the part of the reader. His villians are alway very villanous and his good guys are often flawed, but always but always endearing.

In this book the good guys are a family named Underwood, Mom and Dad (Donna and Price) and the kids (Noah and Abbey). Price has taken offense that a bad guy named Muleman who owns a casino boat tied up in their harbor sees fit to simply empty the boat's holding tanks into the harbor rather than into a pump out system. To deal with the issue he has gone aboard the boat and pulled the seacocks sending the Casino Queen to the bottom. Following his arrest Price refuses to let his wife bail him out and decides to use his incarceration as a bully pulpit to talk to the press about Muleman's activities. He references Nelson Mandela as his role model.

Muleman has insulated himself from investigation and prosecution in numerous ways and the remainder of the book involves getting Dad out of jail and keeping him out, exposing the truth about Muleman and generally seeing that justice is done.

As usual it is done in a very entertaing and creative way. There are other characters who populate the book you will enjoy as well. So, no matter that Hiassen wrote this for young readers. You are only as old as you feel and after reading this you will feel yound indeed.

5 out of 5 stars

Think twice before giving this book to YOUNG kids January 18, 2006
7 out of 10 found this review helpful

I enjoyed this book, which I read aloud with my ten-year-old daughter. It is funny and thought-provoking with an activist slant we enjoyed. But I was a bit surprised by the sordid settings in some of the book -- trailer park, with two drunk characters passed out on the floor after having fought over a bartender/girlfriend. If you don't want to explain these plot elements to a young child, then you should let this book wait a few years.

5 out of 5 stars

A Great Read - For Tweens and their Parents January 8, 2006
6 out of 7 found this review helpful

There is a lot to love about this book. For confirmed Hiaasen fans, and I am one, he finds his groove here and stays with it until the end. His characters are complex ones for any genre but especially young adult fiction. They are, like most of us, a very human mix of desirable and undesirable traits merged to create complex people facing difficult situations. Hiaasen doesn't preach, he doesn't dilute and he doesn't dumb down the book for its intended audience. He remains true to his themes of environmentalism, respect for others and the power of the brain over brawn. All are good lessons for his intended audience and for their folks as well.

The book is well written, the vocabulary rich, the story complex and exciting and Hiaasen keeps it real. The parents (Thank you!!) are not some dumb, clueless dopes who can't get a handle on their children. The children do not have the run of their house. There are consequences for your actions for both the adults and the children in the story. Carl Hiaasen keeps the relationships between parents and children so real in this book. I just can't say enough about how really good this story is.

For those of you who have enjoyed Hiaasen's adult novels through the years, take heart. Though he remains true to the high adventure that has been his trademark he has lost the language that has sometimes marred his storytelling. This cleaned up, PG rated novel is the best book I've read in a very long time. I hope that many of you will enjoy it with your child like I have mine.

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