Skink No Surrender

Teen narrator Richard's cousin and best friend, Malley, runs away from home because she doesn't want to go to boarding school. When Richard tells Skink (who has starred in half a dozen of Hiaasen's adult novels), the former governor takes off to rescue Malley, and Richard joins him on an event-filled road trip. Richard's naiveté plays nicely against Skink's extremism.

Clint Tyree, a.k.a. Skink, has starred in half a dozen of Hiaasen's adult novels; here he makes his first appearance in YA. Standing well over six feet tall, "built like a grizzly" and strong as an ox, unkempt, unwashed, and unwavering in executing his self-imposed crusade and frontier-style justice against the powerful preying on the powerless (both humans and the environment), the former Florida governor is a presence to be reckoned with. As the book opens, teen narrator Richard's cousin and best friend, Malley, runs away from home because she doesn't want to go to boarding school, and Richard is certain that she's with a chat-room acquaintance almost twice her age. When he tells Skink, the governor immediately takes off to rescue Malley, and Richard joins him on an event-filled road trip from Loggerhead Beach through the Panhandle. Although Skink is larger than life, Hiaasen smoothly integrates his vulnerabilities with his outrageous behaviors, including eating roadkill and wrestling an alligator. Richard's naivete plays nicely against Skink's extremism, and Malley remains a prima donna despite her predicament; the villain is unfortunately a two-dimensional character in contrast. There's a message about personal safety on the internet and a little moral instruction from Skink, but these go down as easily as the sun dipping into the Florida Gulf at nightfall. betty carter