From the author of Holes, Fuzzy Mud proved itself to be another brilliant and extremely well written book. Includes themes of friendship, bullying and science. Fuzzy Mud provides suspense and is in many places quite dark so would be more suitable to a less sensitive child, aged 10+.

When a kid goes missing in the woods behind the school and comes across fuzzy mud, chaos ensues. A look at what it means to be the lesser of two evils and how science doesn't always make things better. WIth suspense and intrigue, this short novel will be read quickly to see what happens next!

I always liked Louis Sachar books from when I read them with my son when he was younger and including the two most recent ones that I read, Holes and now Fuzzy Mud. This is a great Middle Grades story about the environment, with some values and morals a huge part of the story. It is a thrilling, suspenseful story that borders on a horror story as well.

Fifth grader Tamaya Dhilwaddi and seventh grader Marshall Walsh have been walking to and from Woodridge Academy together since elementary school. One thing they have always been told is not to go into the woods. When new student and bully Chad Hilligas challenges Marshall to a fight, that is exactly where he heads. Tamaya follows him as she has been told by her parents that she is never to walk home alone. Chad catches up with them and when Tamaya throws a handful of mud into his face, the trouble begins. This story goes back and forth between Senate hearings and the story being narrated by Tamaya. It appears that there is a company near the woods trying to genetically engineer a solution to clean energy. But as history has taught us and will continue to teach us, there are consequences to playing the role of creator...even if you're just creating microorganisms. The problem is, "The smaller something is, the harder it is to keep contained. You can put a tiger or a grizzly bear inside a cage, but it's a lot harder to keep a tiny microorganism from escaping."

I don't want to give away any more of the story, but suffice it to say that this story had an element of surprise, some humour, family dynamics, bullying, character development and the issues with the environment when there is a spill or escape of things being experimented on or developed in secret. This is a great story to read with or to Middle grade students, especially as they will be the developers of the future. There are a lot of things that can be discussed along the way, with a lot of teaching points. This is a great story for family, classroom, school or public libraries. Bravo Louis Sachar, you have done it again.

Loved this story and will definitely add it to my 4th-grade classroom library. I love how Sachar builds suspense and keeps feeding the readers clues about "fuzzy mud" as the story progresses. Great book to get kids thinking about current environmental issues like population growth. Suspenseful and engaging!

Interesting plot. Trying to find a way to incorporate into the curriculum. Unsure if it would be a good read aloud

Suspenseful middle-grade read. I didn't like it quite as well as Holes, but it was enjoyable with subtle lessons on environmentalism, the importance of doing the right thing, and math. :)

Sorry, requested but did not find the time to review.

The only thing preventing this really, really amazing book from being five stars is "Holes". That book was 10 stars and while this book was very, very good, it just doesn't reach the amazing-ness of "Holes", so only four stars.

That being said, this is more of a 4.5 star book. I don't know how he does it, but he NAILS the elementary/middle school mentality. These kids are so REAL. And unfortunately, the adults are the typical hearing, but not really listening adults until the spit hits the fan and it's almost too late.

This book is also incredibly DARK. It's marketed to 10 years and up, but it would have to be a VERY advanced 10 year old that I would hand this too. Bullying, unhappy home-life, flesh eating bacteria that makes children blind and kills animals. It's DARK. But also amazingly good too. Just might be nightmare inducing for the sensitive child. (Also to me, as I started this book while sitting in the dermatologist's office, waiting to find out what my very painful, very itchy, very red rash on the back of my legs was. The Universe/Fate/God has a VERY twisted sense of humor, let's just put it that way. I can laugh now, after I found out my rash was an allergic reaction to a cleanser and NOT a flesh eating bacteria. Before I found out? Not so funny.)

I admit, I loved the ending so much, I read it about five times. SO GOOD. I would definitely recommend this book, judging by the maturity level of the child it was being handed to, with a warning to the parental unit/s. But older and/or less sensitive younger child and adult in love with this author's writing, GO FOR IT! :)

My thanks to NetGalley and Random House Children's Delacorte Books for Young Readers for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.