An action packed tale, plenty of hilarious situations, some fun and interesting animal facts, a fun social commentary, and well-drawn and realistic characters add up to make this one wild adventure that kids and adults alike won’t want to miss!

Meet the Cray family of Florida: Wahoo Cray’s dad, Mickey, is a professional animal wrangler, and the family’s backyard is a pretty wild place; it’s a real zoo! However, over the years, his dad’s unpredictable behavior and terrible business sense have led to a steady decline in income, and when Wahoo’s mom is forced to take a long term job in China in order to pay the bills, Wahoo is left to help manage the animals AND his temperamental dad. When Mickey agrees to take on an on-location job in the Everglades with a reality television show, no one is prepared for the chaos that will ensue.

The host of Expedition Survival! is the world famous Derek Badger, who turns out to be a pampered, egotistical and idiotic fool. Not only does he fake all of the adventures in the episodes of his show, he has little or no regard for anyone or anything that won’t help him continue his rise to fame and stardom. Mickey has no patience for Derek’s antics, and has no problem telling him what a joke he is, much to the everyone’s chagrin. Wahoo knows how important this job is to his family’s finances, and therefore he does everything he can to keep his dad and Derek from coming to full-out blows. On top of all that, as Mickey and Wahoo are getting ready to leave for the Everglades, a classmate of Wahoo’s, Tuna, decides to tag along in order to escape her abusive alcoholic dad. Wahoo and Tuna end up developing a great friendship, and it’s a good thing, since it will take the two of them to get through the adventure they’re in for!
On the shelf, CHOMP will smartly take its place right alongside Carl Hiaasen’s previous iconic and colorful novels for young readers, Hoot, Flush and Scat. Its bright yellow cover and graphic alligator will surely grab kids’ attention and lure them in for this fantastic story.

CHOMP does tackle a few heavy issues: animal cruelty, financial hardship and homelessness, reality television, alcoholism, abuse, conservation and protection of wildlife resources. However, with Hiaasen’s well-loved style and humor, the issues are smoothly--meshed with this zany and unpredictable story, and readers of all ages will learn a few lessons along the way.

Reviewed by KSD
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Mickey Cray and his high school age son Wahoo, named for a wrestler not the fish, are animal wranglers in the Florida Everglades. They are hired to help with the production of the Untamed Channel’s smash hit show Expedition Survival!
The host, Derek Badger, a pot-bellied impostor of a survivalist believes his own studio biography and thinks he can put the “real back in reality
television.” What ensues involves multiple failed attempts by Badger to be heroic and brave for the camera with a variety of animals and reptiles from Alice the semi-tame alligator to a Mastiff bat that does some painful damage to the television star. Anyone who enjoys watching The Animal Planet or The Discovery Channel will love this book.
A sub-plot involving a classmate of Wahoo who comes along because of her drunken father’s abuse adds more excitement to an already full plot but you have to love Tuna Gordon and how she spouts the scientific name for every creature they encounter along the way.
This is a laugh-out-loud book and middle school students as well as high school students will enjoy Chomp. ( )

In this super funny story for tweens, Hiaasen introduces the reader to the super cool adventure dude who is dropped into extreme environments, lives off the land with the help of only his wits and knife. In reality, the adventurer is a highly paid actor with an over-inflated ego, who couldn't survive without his personal assistant. Hair raising adventure, side splitting humor, and never preachy message that you must respect nature. ( )

CW: Domestic abuse - father beats daughter.

1.5 Stars ( )

Mickey and his son Wahoo take care of animals that are used on screen. When reality survival star Derek Badger wants to hire their alligator, Alice, to “wrestle” with for his tv show, Mickey is not impressed with Derek. Even “better” is when Derek decides he wants to really head to the wild in the Everglades to do some filming. Wahoo’s friend, Tuna, who is running from her abusive father, comes along with them.

Ah, plenty of humour here, but also frustration with the idiot Derek! (And how he treats the animals… I was right there with Mickey with regard to the annoyance/frustration on that!) Enjoyed the read about how scripted reality shows can be, too. I would actually love to read about these characters again – Mickey and Wahoo, anyway. I really liked them (and how they are with the animals). I listened to the audio narrated by James Van Der Beek, and it was done very well. ( )