I Love My Fur!

May 1, 2021
Bigfoot's fur is amazing...but does everyone really admire it as much as Bigfoot does? On the way to school one day, Bigfoot's friends--a witch, an elf, and a vampire by appearances--all compliment Bigfoot's silky, brown fur. Bigfoot blushes but thinks, "I love my fur! It's so fluffy! It's so soft!" Bigfoot talks about nothing but fur (even when a dragon classmate tries to talk about a new book). Bigfoot starts advising everyone on hair/fur care (even though the ET has no hair and the gorgon's topped with a head of snakes). When Bigfoot's mother suggests a furcut, Bigfoot declines: "Fur this beautiful should never be cut." Allowed to grow uncontrollably, it begins to cause problems. It inundates the class's show and tell. It trips up a unicorn classmate and gets stuck in everyone's recorders in music class. Bigfoot finally notices that the others aren't focusing on the hair (when it isn't interfering with them), and at last Bigfoot understands. After a massive furcut, Bigfoot begins to take an interest in classmates' concerns. Bigfoot learns there's more to life than fur, and everyone is better off. Miller's cute, colorful button-eyed creatures inhabit a mix of graphic panels and full-bleed illustrations that do the heavy lifting for Bigfoot's tale, with text relegated to occasional dialogue balloons and some simple declarative sentences. The attitudes and problems of Bigfoot's classmates are only presented visually, giving young readers the opportunity to read expressions and make inferences from them. (This book was reviewed digitally.) A good conversation starter about looking beyond ego. (Picture book. 2-6)

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