Carl Hiaasen. Chomp. New York: Knopf, 2012. Print.

Carl Hiaasen mostly writes humor-tinged adventure stories set in Florida for adults. Probably, though, his most widely-known story was one that he wrote for junior high age students (a.k.a. young adults—YA): Hoot. Chomp is also a YA Florida adventure story. More like Hiaasen’s novels for adults, this is very funny, full of caricatures, but with a serious underlying conflict.

Most of the story is told from the point of view of eighth grader Wahoo Cray. Yes, that is his name. His father named him after a popular studio wrestler.

His father, Mickey Cray, is an animal wrangler who lives on the edge of the Everglades. He has a menagerie of wild Florida animals in his back yard that he uses for shows. The Crays are having some financial problems when a producer from the TV show Expedition Survival! shows up. The show is planning on filming an episode in the Everglades. Mr. Cray accepts the opportunity to lend his animals and expertise to the show because he needs the money.

The hero of the TV show is Derek Badger. He is an actor, not a survivalist.   Indeed, the crew sprays tan color on his skin before filming, and they use stunt doubles whenever they can. Mr. Cray does not really like obvious phonies like Mr. Badger and manages to have some fun with him.

Kids and adults alike will have fun with Chomp. It suggests what many of us suspect—that these reality TV shows are scripted as much as any other TV show. We find out, for example, that Mr. Badger belongs to a television union—The Mountaineers, Ice Truckers, and Survivalists’ Guild. He really knows little about the outdoors, and yet has a huge ego. Whether he is in Sumatra, Madagascar, or Florida, he pretends that he has been in the wilderness for weeks, but he actually stays in a hotel and gets flown to location by a helicopter every day.

Wahoo and his father are joined by Tuna, a girl Wahoo knows from school who is running away from an abusive father. While Tuna does not have the hands-on experience with animals that the Crays have, she has done a lot of reading and knows the Latin names of many of the species they encounter. She has been a fan of Expedition Survival! and is quite disappointed at the real Derek Badger.

Wahoo and his dad watched Expedition Survival! often enough to know that most wildlife scenes were faked.” (11) In fact, Derek Badger was not allowed to even enter the boundaries of the U. S. Everglades National Park because he had been banned for life from all U. S. National Parks after he was caught stealing and egg he claimed he needed to eat in order to live from the nest of an endangered species.

“I didn’t know it was a bloody eagle nest.”

That wasn’t true. Everyone on the set had warned him it was an eagle nest. (85)

Lots of fun. Chomp exposes television and tourist scams (of which there are many in Florida). Lots of good humor and a certain amount of excitement.

Junior high students are notorious for thinking that they know a lot. This will confirm in their minds that most adults are more stupid than they are. Perfect for that age—and above.