Let’s talk about Fuzzy Mud by Louis Sachar. It’s such an unbelievably bad book, it bugs me. Every year my former middle school assigns one book for the kid entering 6th, 7th, and 8th grade to read. These books tend to be educational yet entertaining with the goal to address issues particular to middle schoolers. My sister is entering 6th grade and was assigned Fuzzy Mud. My sister is not big on reading and kept telling me how much she couldn’t stand the beginning of Fuzzy Mud. I decided this book will take me all of 2 hours so I’ll just read it for her. Well I’m here to confirm it’s a waste of time. Honestly I feel like there is no point for my sister to spend a couple days reading Fuzzy Mud when she could be reading or doing anything better.
Fuzzy Mud has all the right themes and ideas you’d want for children in middle school. It’s got discussion about bullying, it’s got characters who are ostracized and characters who learn from their mistakes. It’s got ideas about caring for the world and for others around you. This list of ideas makes it sound like a pretty great book, however it’s far from.
When you read Fuzzy Mud it feels like you’re reading a script. It feels like there is supposed to be another layer of emotion that isn’t present. The entire book has an incredibly flat in tone to it. I can best explain this with an analogy. In a TV show you see facial expressions and movements attached to every character, so even if you don’t hear their inner dialogue you get a feel for who they are. However if you were to just read a script of the show it would sound boring and bland because you can’t see or hear how the characters are portrayed. The thing with fuzzy mud is that we get the inner dialogue but not the expression. It feel like a literal layer of static between you and what you’re reading.
The themes in this books are important however they are not only all over the place they are rushed and pushed to a conclusion. For example the bully has a change of heart after spending a night alone in the woods. In well written situation this would be a great instance of character growth and reflection. Instead the fact that he was alone is glosses over and prompts has a few remarks about how his parents dislike him. The characters move on and there is no way to understand his emotions. I can see the deeper meaning in all this but in all honesty I believe I only caught the it because as a highschool senior every other chapter I read in school goes through this kind of meticulous analysis. A rising sixth grade will not only think this is stupid they will think it’s boring.
A short book is a bad book, however in the case of Fuzzy Mud the book was to short to fully delve into it’s themes or characters leaving absolutely everything in a half baked state. One character had a family that cared for him, another didn't, and the third has something in between. In relation to the characters it all makes sense. Yet these interesting pasts and situations are treated as a backdrop; each character only got one or two comments on their livelihoods. This makes for interesting and complex characters yet there pasts are so underdeveloped they might as well have been born yesterday. This goes for every other thing the books touches upon. This lack of depth could cause anyone to lose interest mid sentence.
Fuzzy Mud has all the right ideas but executes them poorly. This books was too much subtext that 6th through 8th grades won't catch if they don’t quit of boredom around chapter 5. Most of the time the book sounded boring and flat, and this especially goes for all the characters. Not to mention the premise of life threatening mud is straight up stupid. Why make up a fake world problem when you can talk about a real world problem. If the goal is to educate children then don’t stop halfway.
In my opinion an alternative to Fuzzy Mud would be A Silent Voice by Yoshitoki Oima. I’m a little bias and a manga isn’t exactly something you’d get an entire middle school to read however it really is an alternative. It has a lot of the same themes of bullying and hurting others. It also has different family situations that affect the characters and characters that actually grow and develop. It has characters that voice there opinions and feelings rather than slightly hint on it in their inner dialogue. But most importantly instead of a fake societal issue is has a very real societal concern as the backdrop, something that could provide a real learning opportunity for middle schoolers.
All in all Fuzzy Mud was a bad book but what I think bugged me most was the mud itself. It felt like the book that tried to teach you something and then made up a lot of crap to water down the meaning. This made the book boring, half baked, and in the end you learned less than you could. Fuzzy Mud isn’t worth reading, or discussing unless you’re talking about how it’s badly written and how to not do what Fuzzy Mud did.
(Also I made a goodreads so feel free to check out the 3 books I’ve read b/c now a days I never read)
