Little Yau: A Fuzzhead Tale

by Janell Cannon

When her best friend Trupp gets into trouble, Little Yau, casting aside her dreams of learning the great secrets of the mountains from the Wise Ones to help him, must enter the dangerous world of the humans to find the one thing that will save Trupp, in a wonderful story of friendship. 60,000 first printing.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

56 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2002

Reviews

[Derrick Schneider · Rating 2 out of 5]

Heavy-handed messaging about environmental destruction meets drawn-out pacing.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very strange tale. I'm not sure what to think about it. It was interesting, but certainly odd. Janell Cannon's illustrations are terrific, as usual. And the information provided at the end of the book about Fuzzheads was entertaining - gotta love an animal who dresses up in human clothes as often as they dare to go hang out in libraries. Still, I definitely would not consider this a favorite story and I'm not sure if we will go out of our way to read Trupp: A Fuzzhead Tale.

[N · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book reminds of those people who write new age books through channeling aliens. I do admit the focus on herbal healing is cool, an animal alternative to tradional medicine.

The animals are sort of cute in a creepy way.

[Leland · Rating 2 out of 5]

A strange little story about creatures called "Fuzzheads" who look in the human world for a plant to create a medicine to cure oneo f their own who was poisoned. Somewhat hard to follow.

[Sam · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another hate-the-humans book. Extremely boring besides.

[Bree · Rating 2 out of 5]

Notes::
Kids like this story, but I do not
Weird pictures and made up creatures
Yau has to save Trupp's life with herbal healing

[Jenny Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

As usual, beautiful illustrations and a good underlying theme of friendship. This one, as with Trupp, has environmental issues as well. I enjoy these short children's books by Cannon.

[Christina Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I originally became interested in the book as I had just finished reading Trupp, by Janell Cannon (same author). Trupp and Little Yau are the same fictional animals and Trupp is a main character in the story of Little Yau. I believe Janell Cannon has two stories about these fictional creatures, called Fuzzheads. Once I read Trupp and fell in love with that story, I knew I had to locate Litte Yau to read more about the Fuzzheads. I learned of Little Yau from the book sleeve of the book, Trupp.

This story was just as good as Trupp. Much like the story of Trupp, this is a tale of friendship and teamwork. Little Yau is an apprentice medicine-woman, who discovers Trupp poisoned by her home. She had been studying rigorously to become a "wise one," which is a kin to a traditional doctor. Since Little Yau was not yet a fully knowledgeable medicine-woman, she and her friends called for help of the "wise ones," which were the well educated elders of the Fuzzheads. Then they began an adventure to find the anecdote to cure Trupp from his condition. The group of Fuzzheads find themselves walking with humans in their quest to find the correct ingredients to create the anecdote.

This is a story of working together, not giving up, friendship and appreciation. It would be a great book to introduce early readers to these universal themes. Also, since Trupp (a main character) is also the main character of another picture book by Janell Cannon, this would be a great way to have students draw connections from the two stories. Students could also take note of common themes that Janell Cannon includes in her writing; these two book would be a great way to introduce young readers to having "favorite" authors and exemplifying that if one enjoys a few books from the same author, one may decide to find more books from that same author.

The illustrations are incredible in this story. There are parts of the story where there is no text, just pages of illustrations. The reader is able to understand the progression of the story from the visual cues alone. This would be a good book for beginner readers and also for the special education setting, where visual aids are of high importance. Many creative projects can come out of this story, such as students creating their own fictional characters and writing about them.

[The Brothers · Rating 4 out of 5]

We've really enjoyed other books by this author (Crickwing, Stellaluna). This one was a bit strange. Maybe we needed to read Trupp before we tried this to know about the Fuzzheads, because it seemed this book thought you knew certain things already.

Even so, it's just a story about a Fuzzhead looking for a certain plant to help save a sick friend.

Illustrations are beautiful.

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Little Yau is a Fuzzhead that wants nothing more than to be selected to learn with the Wise Ones. When her best friend, Trupp, is found poisoned Yau must use her knowledge of plants to save him. From author Janell Cannon.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was slightly cheesy and too wordy. I can see why some children would enjoy it. This is about meeting a challenge and exceeding others' expectations by helping a friend.