Quarter 4 Choice Book Report

Part 1

I read the book Scat by Carl Hiaasen.  The main character in this book is Nick Waters.  He lives in the sunny and beautiful Naples, Florida.  Nick’s best friend is Marta and they both attend Truman… They both have the “meanest” teacher in the whole school, Mrs. Starch.  Nick’s father is in the National Guard and overseas. I think three characteristics that would describe Nick Waters is caring, sneaky, and courageous.

I think Nick is courageous because when he is concerned about where Mrs. Starch is and what happened to her, he sneaks into her house. I think that is a VERY courageous and brave move, although it may not be the smartest.  Another courageous and brave action made by Nick is when he is in the Black Vine Swamp and he climbs a tree to bring a baby panther back to its mother.  While climbing the tall tree, he slips and breaks his arm. He didn’t quite fall to the ground though.  He knew that returning the lost baby panther to its mother was very important and crucial because the cub wasn’t able to live on its own.  Because of this, Nick fights to keep climbing to the top of the tree.  When he completes his mission, he falls from the tree and black’s-out on the surface of the swamp land.

Another characteristic I would describe Nick as is caring.  He cared SO much about the baby panther.  He wanted it to survive because the panther was an endangered species with only about 60-100 of the cats left.  Nick also cared about the laws.  When Nick finds out that the Red Diamond Energy Corporation is working on illegal property, he wants to help stop this act.  A major thing that Nick cared about was his teacher, Mrs. Starch.  Mrs. Starch wasn’t Nick’s favorite teacher in the world, but because she was never seen after going into an arson fire, he wanted to find out where she was and make sure she was okay.  He went to BIG extremes to make sure she was alive.

                Sneaky is another characteristic that would describe Nick Waters.  Nick sneaks into Mrs. Starch’s house.  He was smart to look around for a key, which he found, rather than breaking in.  I also thought Nick was sneaky because he would sneak out into the Black Vine Swamp with Marta and Twilly, without the community and citizens of Naples knowing.  They weren’t supposed to be on the state and other people’s property.

                I think Nick was very brave, courageous, caring, sneaky, and concerned.  I don’t think Nick ever wanted to break the law or hurt anyone or anything.  Nick Waters just wanted to save the endangered species of the panther.