Fuzzy Mud

May 18, 2015
Sachar blends elements of mystery, suspense, and school-day life into a taut environmental cautionary tale about the insatiable hunger for energy sources and the cost of not doing the right thing. Marshall’s routines at Woodridge Academy—including his daily walk to and from school with his anxious neighbor Tamaya—are upended by the arrival of blowhard bully Chad. A quiet seventh-grader, Marshall becomes a target for Chad, who challenges him to an after-school fight. Rather than suffer a beating, he and Tamaya take a shortcut through the off-limits woods and come across what Tamaya dubs “fuzzy mud,” a strange substance they don’t realize harbors great danger for them and the town at large. Amid chapters following the children’s exploits, Sachar includes transcripts of secret Senate hearings with the scientists who engineered the microorganisms that generate fuzzy mud. In a tense sequence of events, readers learn more about Marshall, Tamaya, Chad, and the peril they face. A dramatic conclusion celebrates the positive ripples of friendship and honesty, and will leave readers with much food for thought. Ages 10–up. Agent: Ellen Levine, Trident Media Group.

figsarenice - In Fuzzy Mud, the fiction novel by Louis Sachar, A young girl named Tamaya discovers a strange mud in the woods. This mud leads to many unfortunate events in the town of health cliff. Which was eventually lead into quarantine. Tamaya is a fifth grader who always obeys the rules, This behavior is displayed many times in the book by Sachar. One example of this is when tamayas best friend hope says to a seventh grader “Don’t listen to her, Tamayas a real goody two-shoes.” Sachar 5. Tamaya walks home with marshall, a seventh grader. Marshall has been getting bullied by the new kid, Chad. Who claims to have been expelled from multiple schools. Chad challenges marshall to a fight, and the location is along the route marshall takes with tamaya to walk home. Marshall decides to take a short cut, which leads to the whole town being put in quarantine because of the fuzzy mud. I believe the theme of this book is that the author is trying to shed light upon the fact that so many things are polluting the earth to this day. An example of this is when somebody says to Dr Mark Humbard that the new way to power cars is “clean” and he responds with “Clean energy? Is that what they're calling it? There's nothing clean about it.” Sachar 9. Also the pollution of the earth is affecting us. One example from the book is how the fuzzy mud, that is made from The same new way to power cars, wreaks havoc among health cliff residents. I love this book and would definitely recommend it to other people, Particularly because i never wanted to put it down. It had suspense and horror filled moments, aha and surprising moments, it had everything. . The characters showed a lot of courage and strength. I would mostly recommend this book to people interested in science and/or suspenseful books.