Fuzzy, Inside and Out: A Story About Small Acts of Kindness and Big Hair

There’s more than one kind of fuzzy in this story about community care: the abundant hair of protagonist Fuzzy Haskins, a skateboarding pink dog who requires two hair dryers after a bath, and the warm fuzzies that Fuzzy radiates as he moves throughout an animal-populated city, taking cookies to a friend. Nothing escapes his attentive kindness: when he notices a fuzzy caterpillar struggling, he gives the insect a tiny skateboard—“Take these, too. They don’t fit me anymore,” writes OHora (Sonny Says Mine!), as Fuzzy offers a pair of tiny sunglasses along with the board. Fuzzy’s travels through the city are derailed when post-rain humidity triggers a massive case of the fur frizzies—“FWUMP!”—causing him to careen unseeing into passersby and end up stuck headfirst in a bin of equally fuzzy feather dusters. But his kindness is repaid: the caterpillar rallies Fuzzy’s friends, and with another “FWUMP!” they extract him. While the core message is familiar, it feels fresh and funny; acrylic pictures exude unabashed openheartedness and graphic joie de vivre. And readers should clamor to replicate the denouement, which in keeping with the rest of the book’s affirming tone, involves turning broken cookies into a tasty communal treat. Ages 4–8. Agent: Sean McCarthy, Sean McCarthy Literary. (Nov.)