Note: I accessed a digital review copy through Edelweiss. ( )

literatura infanto juvenil

(Copy was provided to read and review.)

Here it is, one of my favourite books this year.

Fuzz McFlops is a rabbit and nowadays a famous poet and writer (one of his bestsellers, The Veggie Patch Behind Bars was published by the famous Rodent House), but he lives alone and as a recluse and just leaves his burrow to go to the post office or market.

It all goes back to his childhood, which wasn't easy, as one of his ears is shorter than the other and his classmates used to tease him a lot. To make matters worse, he had to wear an Earlongator, a special sort of helmet (you will find the made-me-cry-with-laughter instruction manual for the apparatus in the text and the bottomline of the manual alone, where you can call the Technical Support, the Cottontail Service Department on a 24-hour hareline, gives you an idea of the author's amazing output of ideas).

Normally Fuzz never reads his fan mail, despite getting a lot of it, but one day a letter catches his eye. It's violet and has a silk ribbon tied around it. Charlotte Passe-Partout, who is a fan of his work, critizes one of his poems and what's more, she has it rewritten and given it a happy ending.
At first McFlops is very angry. How dare she? He is a well renowned author after all.
But after a while he starts to think about her words and if she's right, that his writing is rather depressing. Are his bestsellers, like the Withered Carrot or Unhappy Easter, really rather sad?
Slowly a correspondence between the two begins, first with Charlotte sending "improvements" to McFlops' works and him angrily replying (fantastic highlight his drawing of Charlotte).
After a while, Fuzz starts to look forward to her letters and one day he opens up and writes about himself and his flaws, as not only has he two ears of different lengths, but he also suffers from a severe case of Earspasmitis (the patient information of Twitchannul another laugh-out-loud moment).
After posting the letter, he's sure, he will never hear from Charlotte again. Why would she now still want to write to someone like him?
In the meantime, for the first time, he writes a fairytale and gives it actually a happy ending. If just Charlotte would write again, then he could tell her about it.
But will Charlotte write back? Will the two ever meet?

Fuzz McFlops is one of the most inventive and beautiful takes on "just be yourself, you are special just the way you are", I've come across in a long time.
The story is told with a highly entertaining mix of text, letters, postcards, instruction manual, poems, a song, patient information, a recipe, a fairytale, a telegram and enhanced with beautiful and fitting illustrations.
The last third of the book explains difficult words to the young reader, again in a very unique style with a mixture of comic/cartoon and a sensible explanation of the word.

Fuzz McFlops is a hugely enjoyable and warm hearted book about the differences which make us special and the people, who love us with all their heart, because of it.
Don't miss it!

5 starshaped very delicious Chocolate Balls from me. ( )