Hoot Study Guide

Chapter 19

Officer Delinko tells Curly that he’s worried about the owls, but Curly only responds, “What owls?” Later, as he’s patrolling, Delinko hears Curly shout that he’s heard someone jump the fence. When Delinko arrives at the trailer, he sees nothing except s a series of white flashes at the other end of the property. When he runs to that spot, he sees nothing out of the ordinary.

The next day is the groundbreaking ceremony, and Roy asks for a permission slip from his mom to leave school to attend. She’s worried that it’s not such a good idea, but his dad signs it and tells him to be careful and to be smart. Beatrice tells Roy on the bus that she got a note, too, and then gives him his mother’s camera. Mullet Fingers had dropped it off the night before, saying he had gotten the pictures Roy wanted.

At 10:45, a stretch limousine arrived at the construction site carrying Chuck Muckle and Kimberly Lou Dixon. Officer Delinko is on his way home, having no desire to see the bulldozers begin to work, but Muckle calls him over and demands he help Kimberly find a place to change into her Mother Paula costume. Muckle is uncomfortable when he discovers that Delinko is the same officer who fell asleep while guarding the site, but he has no time to demand someone else help. Curly is quite impressed with Miss Dixon who is the first celebrity he had ever been around. Delinko is impressed with how pretty she is, too, but is put off with her rough voice and somewhat condescending manner.

Notes

This chapter is filled with preliminaries - events that help set the stage for what’s about to happen during the groundbreaking ceremony. They create a subtle sense of suspense since the reader is at this point anxious to know what Roy’s plan entails, even though some of what he has in mind might be easy to guess. It’s also ironic for Delinko to meet a celebrity who is so pretty and yet has such a rough manner about her.

Roy’s dad’s decision to sigh his permission slip and his warning him to be careful and to be smart is a sign that the parent has decided that it’s time he allowed his son to make a decision about his own sense of integrity. Roy will live by and be responsible for his own choices now.