Fuzzy Mud by Louis Sachar

Fuzzy Mud by Louis Sachar, the author of "Holes," is a great book filled with interesting dialogue of a inquiry of a scientist after he creates a new fuel: bio-fuel. This bio-fuel is made of microbes that split every 36 minutes. These microbes cannot survive in oxygen. However, mutations are bound to appear while reproducing that fast. This book is about what happens when one of these mutated microbes is accidentally released into a forest near a relatively isolated town in Heath Cliff, Pennsylvania. Then a private school student named Tamaya and her friend, Marshall, go into the woods to find a shortcut home.

This book is slightly creepy, with a bit of mild biological fright. Tamaya gets some fuzzy mud on her hand. The hand later starts to get a rash and starts flaking off skin colored dust, which supports the theme. The answer to "why" the dust is flaking off is very creepy and sort of a spoiler, but it also helps the theme. I would tell more, but I don't want to spoil the ending! This is a good book that is relatively new, however it ends in a mild cliffhanger, and Sachar does not seem to plan it to be a series at the moment.