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- John Steven Gurney | Fuzzy Baseball Vol. 5: Fuzzy Baseballoween by John Steven Gurney, Papercutz, 64 pages, $7.99.
The World Series begins this weekend, but the Astros, the Phillies, the Rangers — who cares? There's another baseball team that's been capturing imaginations on the diamond, a team of players so dedicated and quirky that fans can't help but cheer them on.
Meet the Fernwood Valley Fuzzies, the animal-athlete characters in Fuzzy Baseball, a five-volume series of graphic novels for kids by Brattleboro author and illustrator John Steven Gurney. The Fuzzies take on a different team in each book, and in the latest installment, Fuzzy Baseballoween, they play a monsterlike team — the Graveyard Ghastlies — on a moonlit Halloween night. With goblin spectators filling the stands and a cauldron bubbling away between second and third base, Fuzzy Baseballoween will charm any reader who prefers a Halloween tale that's more silly than scary.
"I like the idea of animals being funny," said Gurney, who has illustrated nearly 150 children's books over the past several decades. "I look at the Fuzzy Baseball books as ensemble comedies, almost like the characters are a troupe of actors."
The anthropomorphic animals bringing Gurney's wacky, punny sense of humor to life in the series include Hammy Sosa, the Fuzzies' catcher, and Jackie Rabbitson, who plays second base — a pig and a rabbit, respectively, paying homage to iconic players Sammy Sosa and Jackie Robinson.
In Fuzzy Baseballoween, they pitch, bat and catch with enough skill, but it's the goofy commentary that draws the reader in. When the Fuzzies arrive for the game with the Ghastlies, their host, a bat named Count Flappula, leads them through a stretch of dark woods to the field, where they're alarmed to see tombstones at each base. "Probably best not to slide," comments Sandy Kofox, one of the pitchers (who is, yes, a fox named after Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax).
Surprises pop up throughout, like when Gurney breaks the fourth wall and shows up in the opening pages, pitching other, highly alliterative holiday book ideas to his editor, all in vain: Gobble Gobble Grounder, Ho-Ho Home Run, Double Play Dreidel and Kwanzaa Kurveball each get the ax, so Baseballoween it is. The editor, an oversize bulldog, appears again, in the second inning, to complain that the story is too Halloween-y and not baseball-y enough. And there's a visit from a Reading Level Police officer, who objects to the use of the word "preposterous" by Blossom, the honey possum center fielder. "That's a Level 13.5C word," the officer warns. "You can't use the word 'preposterous' in a Level 7.4B book."
Papercutz published Gurney's first Fuzzy Baseball book in 2016, after he'd previously illustrated several well-loved chapter book series, including A to Z Mysteries, Bailey School Kids and The Calendar Mysteries. He wrote and illustrated Dinosaur Train, a picture book, and has also illustrated board games, puzzles and a shopping bag for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
All of his characters, including those in Fuzzy Baseballoween, are colorfully rendered and lively. The growly Ghastlies pitcher Lou Lupino, Count Flappula with his wide-eyed glee and the cheerful, sensible Blossom — they're proof of Gurney's claim that he might have gone into zoology had he not become an illustrator.
Gurney is currently on the faculty at Kutztown University in Pennsylvania, where he teaches illustration, drawing and visual storytelling. He recalls that during his own college days, his creative sensibility was a little darker and more biting than what's on display in Fuzzy Baseballoween. But all along, he's been inspired by his childhood humor favorites Mad magazine and Bugs Bunny cartoons. For the Fernwood Valley Fuzzies, he creates gags that are gentle, accessible and dad-jokey, with intentional nods to readers of all ages. "The youngest kids like the silly pictures, fourth and fifth graders understand the humor more, and adults get the references," Gurney said. "I'm aiming for a wide, wide range of appeal."