Dave Barry in Conversation with Carl Hiaasen

Carl Hiaasen was born and raised in Florida. He is the author of thirteen previous novels, including the best sellers Razor Girl, Bad Monkey, Star Island, Nature Girl, Skinny Dip, Sick Puppy, and Lucky You, and five best-selling children’s books, Hoot, Flush, Scat, Chomp, and Skink. His most recent work of nonfiction is Dance of the Reptiles, a collection of his columns from the Miami Herald. Snakes, grizzlies, a missing dad, a menacing drone... Carl Hiaasen delivers a wickledly funny, slightly subversive tale in his latest New York Times bestseller, Squirm (Knopf Books for Young Readers).Some facts about Billy Dickens: He once saw a biker swerve across the road in order to run over a snake.  Later, that motorcycle somehow ended up at the bottom of a canal.  Billy isn't the type to let things go. Some facts about Billy's family:  They've lived in six different Florida towns because Billy's mom insists on getting a house near a bald eagle nest.  Billy's dad left when he was four and is a total mystery.  Billy has just found his dad's address--in Montana. This summer, Billy will fly across the country, hike a mountain, float a river, dodge a grizzly bear, shoot down a spy drone, save a neighbor's cat, save an endangered panther, and then try to save his own father.

Dave Barry is a Pulitzer Prize-winning humor writer whose columns and essays have appeared in hundreds of newspapers over the past thirty-five years. He has also written a number of New York Times bestselling humor books, most recently Lessons from Lucy: The Simple Joys of an Old, Happy Dog. He is not personally Jewish, but many of his friends are. In A Field Guide to the Jewish People (Flatiron Books), written by Barry, Alan Zweibel and Adam Mansbach, the authors dissect every holiday, rite of passage, and tradition, unravel a long and complicated history, and tackle the tough questions that have plagued Jews and non-Jews alike for centuries. In Lessons from Lucy: The Simple Joys of an Old, Happy Dog (Simon & Schuster), as Dave Barry turns seventy—not happily—he realizes that his dog, Lucy, is dealing with old age far better than he is. She has more friends, fewer worries, and way more fun. So Dave decides to figure out how Lucy manages to stay so happy, to see if he can make his own life happier by doing the things she does (except for drinking from the toilet).