I discovered this fabulous picture book a few years ago with my middle son and we both loved it. Now my youngest son asks me to read it again and again. And I oblige, because it’s one of those rare books that never wears out no matter how many times you read it. The pictures are brilliant and funny, and the text just rolls out in a fun, quirky, “fuzzy” tumble.
The Great Fuzz Frenzy takes place in a prairie dog hole. Before the text begins, pictures show a great big golden retriever dropping a tennis ball down the hole. It bumps and it rumbles all the way to the bottom, and the prairie dogs don’t know what to make of it. Till young Pip touches it, and some of the yellow fuzz gets caught in her claw.
This prompts the frenzy indicated in the title. Every prairie dog wants fuzz. They “pulled it. Puffed it. Stretched it. Fluffed it. Tugged it. Twirled it. Spiked it. Swirled it” until the fuzz ran out, and the dogs began fighting each other for the limited supply.
In the end, the prairie dogs learn what really matters, the villain becomes the hero, and everyone swears off fuzz. But trouble threatens again in the very last picture.
I guarantee young kids will love this. Probably many of the older ones as well. My middle son still sits in on readings. I highly recommend you look up a copy!
The Great Fuzz Frenzy, by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Grummel, 2005, Book Review