Customer Reviews

The Great Fuzz Frenzy

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Picture books must be truly intelligent, creative and entertaining to amuse my second and third grade class. This one was the biggest winner of the year with my students! They laughed UPROARIOUSLY at every detailed picture and continued to talk about it well after the story was over. It's great for Read Aloud because it gives parents/teachers the opportunity to "ham up" the voices of the prairie dogs. The content is appropriate for younger students, but the humor keeps elementary school kids riveted! Fun for adults, too!

One day a dog drops a green, fuzzy tennis ball down a hole which is the home of a group of prairie dogs. The fun then begins. This strange object, with the strage and wonderful fuzzy stuff absolutely fascinates each member of the prairie dog city. The little critters come up with some rather unique uses for the green stuff. The illustrations are wonderful as is the story. It is actually funny and a joy to read.

I read this one to the younger classes at school and the kids love it. I get quite a number of requests for rereads, which is a pretty good endorsement for any children's book. There are several fold out pages which show various parts of the prairie dog city which makes it ideal for reading to a group. The text is great and holds the interest of the children. The art is colorful, funny and well executed.

This one really should be in your reading library. I use it for kindergarten through third grade, although I suspect that even the ones that are a bit older even enjoy it. I know I do.

A pet dog drops a tennis ball into a prairie dog hole. What must the colony inhabitants think of it? What, if anything, would they do with it? In this case, the incident stirs up "The Great Fuzz Frenzy." When a bit of the ball's green fuzz adorns one prairie dog's head, all of the other animals grow envious and must have some fuzz for themselves. The excitement almost spells doom for the loudest resident, Big Bark; for in his preoccupation with green, he forgets to do his job and look out for danger. Tragedy is averted and the fuzz turns out to accidentally save him, and a lesson is learned. No one needs fuzz anymore. Or do they?

This amusing anecdote is accompanied by thoroughly enjoyable illustrations. Every page of this book -- including the end papers and the title and dedication pages -- carries a drawing that is part of the story. Several pages open up to reveal even more details of the prairie dog tunnel system. "The Great Fuzz Frenzy" is told and drawn by sisters who are obviously familiar with the aging process of the typical tennis ball. The only thing missing is the inevitable drenching of doggie slobber that usually coats a well-used canine toy. Great fun for readers of all ages!

Along with Tops and Bottoms, this book by Janet Stevens is wonderful. The illustrations are wonderful in portraying the animal's character. I would recommend telling the story by using some of your own words and the pictures. Some of the words are too harsh for a young child. This story is great for predicting the next event besides giving a lesson about greed.

This story was hilarious. I began reading it to my second graders and they didn't want to leave when the bell rang. They wanted to stay for the finish. The curiosity of the prairie dogs was believable and as always, Janet Stevens' illustrations were wonderful. It was very creative to see the ways the little guys could use the "fuzz". Loved it.

This wonderfully rendered book won the 2007 Colorado Children's Book Award through the CCIRA, Colorado chapter of the International Reading Association. The coolest part of this award was that the books are nominated AND voted by the children of Colorado. Janet Stevens has an AMAZING talent in this and many other books. She is fabulous in school visits and is an engaging person. Watch her, she will win that coveted Caldecott someday!

As a speech and language expert with Play on Words, I look for great language enhancing books: Violet, the dog, innocently drops her tennis ball down a prairie dog's tunnel, setting off the "fuzz frenzy." "Boink, thump, rumble, and plunk" is just the beginning of this delightful journey of a fuzzy ball through the land of prairie dogs, filling your child with rich vocabulary and delightful drawings. Bossy Big Bark is the control freak who wants everyone to stay away from the questionable object while Pip Squeak ventures forth for a look. The new found fuzz is stretched, tugged, spiked and twirled into creative hats, belts, rabbit ears and Indian headdresses. Children learn that language is fun when combined in tangles like "fuzz fiesta," and "fuzz fandangle." Naturally there is competition over who will get this new green fuzzy treasure and Pip Squeak is mortified that he had started a battle over the fuzz. Big Bark returns, having stolen all the fuzz, only to be plucked up by an eagle in need of a meal. The prairie dogs rally to save one of their own and Big Bark returns in his protective role over the pack.

Children like to match the drawings with the descriptions: "top dog, corny dog and frilly dog." Take some time to make a list of your child's descriptive words for Big Bark (bossy, ornery, inconsiderate, impatient) and Pip Squeak (inquisitive, kind, leader). Building good descriptive words will prepare your child for writing interesting stories. Do they have a friend like Big Bark? Or is their friend more like Pip Squeak? One little girl that I read this book to was having a little trouble with a bossy friend. What an opportunity to work through issues with peers.

Before turning the page of The Great Fuzz Frenzy, make a prediction about what is going to happen. Parents try it too and see what a variety of options you come up with. One little boy saw the sky go black and predicted a storm was coming. All guesses are good and encouraged. This helps your child think creatively, expand on stories, and strengthen his language skills.

I first read this book at a teacher workshop and fell in love with the story and the varied page formats. (Some pages unfold vertically to show the underground tunnels!) This is not only a fun book to look at, the kids giggled all the way through it as the plot unfolded. This could be used in reader's workshop to teach point of view, predicting, inferring, sound effects, or it could also be used to spur a discussion on friendship and cooperation. We did an author study on this sister authir/illustrator pair and the students love how they have a sense of humor and are a bit silly in their stories. I LOVE IT TOO! :O)

This was a fun book! A dog drops a tennis ball down a hole which turns out to be the entrance to a prairie dog community. It surprises and scares them. They gather around chattering about to do; that is until Big Bark appears. He is a rather large prairie dog who has a bottle cap for a hat. Before he can do anything little pip squeak jumps forward and picks off some fuzz and starts playing with it. Pretty soon the whole colony starts playing with the fuzz and things get crazy. Soon more and more prairie dogs show up wanting fuzz and it runs out. Then they start fighting over it!

We liked this book and it's been a bedtime book every night since we bought it. The artwork is good and I think the author gave a funny presentation to the personalities of Prairie dogs. I particularly liked Big Bart's run in with an Eagle. "No more Big Bark! The crowd cheered "Yaaaaay!" "Don't yaaaaaay! He's one of us!" yelled Pip.

Again a great story and I can see the book will be well loved by my girl.

This is such a cute and clever story. It's great to see how all of the prairie dogs come together at the end. We have had this for awhile and both of my girls (4 and 7) still consider it a favorite.