Fuzzy Mud by Louis Sachar is a suspenseful story about middle school friends and enemies and about biotechnology gone awry.

Tamaya always walks home from school with her older neighbor, Marshall. Then, one day he insists on taking a shortcut through the woods to avoid a boy who has challenged him to a fight. Tamaya knows that the woods are off limits, but her mother has forbidden her to walk home alone, so she follows Marshall. And she comes across some fuzzy mud…

Interspersed with the compelling kids’ stories are excerpts from the Senate’s secret hearings on the technology that led to the fuzzy mud. In addition, Sachar uses equations to show the ominous doubling of the population of microbes.

Larrabee and I both enjoyed this one, although neither of us would rank it as our favorite book by Louis Sachar. That honor goes to Holes for me and Sideways Stories from Wayside School for Larrabee.