"Little Fuzzy
H. Beam PIPER (1904 - 1964)
Jack Holloway, a prospector on the planet Zarathustra discovers small furry creatures. These creatures are obviously intelligent, but are they animals or are they sapient? If they are sapient the planet will be declared a protected zone and the company that is developing the planet commercially will lose their exclusive rights to the resources... (Summary by tabithat)
"The only thing that makes Little Fuzzy a science fiction story is it being set on another planet. There are no rayguns, only occasional mention of spaceships, no otherworldly technology that keeps the story going (I'm pointing this out mainly to suggest that people who don't ordinarily read science fiction might like this tale). Okay, there are viewscreens, and alien lifeforms, and mysterious bioreactive gems, and a colorful lie detector, but they don't get in the way of what's really interesting.
It's about what it takes to be a person, and how that really needs to be reexamined sometimes.
""Little Fuzzy" is one of only two children's books I have held onto for my adult life, and like the other one I've added to my permanent library, I held onto it because it beautifully places complicated and nuanced issues in front of young children who otherwise would be reading cute (but tiring) morality tales a la 'Frog and Toad.'
Fundamentally, this book revolves around the question of to whom do we, as moral beings, owe duties? It is easy to look at your neighbor and agree that it would violate a moral duty if you were to stab him to death in cold blood. It is easy enough to think the same thing about killing a human being on the opposite side of the world by pressing a button that launches a missle from the seat of your government. What about those beings normally outside of our moral intuitions, though? Ultimately, what we must ask ourselves, and answer, and what this book places before children in their first one or two years in elementary school is the question, "Do non-humans count?"
I laud this book, not only for being a good story with adorable illustrations and supporting an ethical principle with which I personally agree, but with having the temerity to trust that young children are capable of at the very least receiving a controversial question about which to ponder and sort out their feelings.
For those of us who can recall with fondness the song lyrics which espoused, "I believe the children are our future," it is simply shocking that more books aimed at the very young have never amounted to more than 'See Spot Run'.(less)
