Friendship

Hoot and The Schernoff Discoveries:

A Comparison of Friendship

As kids reach a certain age their friends become the most important thing in their lives. The friendship they have with other kids is the bond that makes them who they are, especially in their pre-teenage years. In both novels, Hoot written by Carl Hiaasen and published by Alfred A Knopf in 2002 and The Schernoff Discoveries written by Gary Paulsen and published by Bantam Doubleday Bell Books in 1997, develops two different stories about how strong friendship can be between people, or in this case kids. The idea of friendship was a continuing theme in both books and showed how much each character cared about each other.

The two books are about two groups of kids trying to accomplish different tasks. Hoot is about a boy, Roy, who moves into a small town in Florida and runs into bullies, a mysterious boy, and a group of miniature owls. He groups together with the mysterious boy, Mullet fingers, and his step-sister, Beatrice, to save the owls from Mother Paula's Pancake House while fighting off Dana, the school bully. The Schernoff Discoveries is a book about two boys that are social outcasts trying to find a way to fit in. Harold and the narrator, who is never named, go through many different adventures including skiing, fishing, and buying a car. These adventures never led them to any social standing, but ultimately make their friendship stronger.

The characters in both books shared many similarities especially the bonds between Roy and Mullet Fingers and Harold and the narrator. The friendship held by these characters is shown through both books. All the characters no matter how different they were, wanted and learned to help each other. In almost every short story told by the narrator in The Schernoff Discoveries Harold and him are always saving each other from some predicament. For example, when Harold has the brilliant idea to buy a car they have to earn money so they start to collect golf balls at the golf course. They worked together to find all the golf balls. Harold studied the water current and the narrator dives into the water and collects all the golf balls. "We found an old potato sack in back of the clubhouse and Harold sat down on the bank and held it out over the water. I dumped the balls into the sack and dove again (Paulsen 88)." The boys work together and show the strength of their friendship. They rely on each other's strength to find all the golf balls so then can in turn buy a car. Roy and Mullet Fingers, in the book Hoot, also show the strength of their friendship by helping each other out. Roy helps Mullet Fingers save the owls. For most of the story Roy does not really know who Mullet Fingers is, but still becomes a great friend by helping in any way he can. Roy sets up Dana to go to Mother Paula's Pancake House, and then Dana is arrested and this in turn lets Mullet Fingers vandalize the construction site more. Roy wanted to help his friend save the owls, but also helped Mullet fingers not get arrested. Even though Mullet Fingers did not know what Roy had done, Roy had shown how much he cared about his friend.

The characters in the books also had to deal with the annoyance of bullies. Once again all the character's friendships were tested to see how they would handle the bullies. While working at the bowling alley, Harold and the narrator are picked on by, Chimmer, and fight for one another until Chimmer is taken care of by a bowling pin. The boys worked together and protect each other from Chimmer's bullying. Chimmer starts to pick on the narrator first. Harold stands up to Chimmer for him. "Leave him alone, Harold yelled. He's never done anything to youÐ'..." (Paulsen 57). Chimmer then attacks Harold and the narrator is there to protect his friend. "I screamed a word I'd read in the Mickey Spillan books.