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Maybe A Fox

Maybe A Fox Book Cover Maybe A Fox
Kathi Appelt, Alison McGhee
Children's
Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing
March 8, 2016
Hardcover
272

Worlds collide in a spectacular way when Newbery and National Book Award finalist Kathi Appelt and Pulitzer Prize nominee and #1 New York Times bestseller Alison McGhee team up to create a fantastical, heartbreaking, and gorgeous tale about two sisters, a fox cub, and what happens when one of the sisters disappears forever.

Sylvie and Jules, Jules and Sylvie. Better than just sisters, better than best friends, they’d be identical twins if only they’d been born in the same year. And if only Sylvie wasn’t such a fast—faster than fast—runner. But Sylvie is too fast, and when she runs to the river they’re not supposed to go anywhere near to throw a wish rock just before the school bus comes on a snowy morning, she runs so fast that no one sees what happens…and no one ever sees her again. Jules is devastated, but she refuses to believe what all the others believe, that—like their mother—her sister is gone forever.

At the very same time, in the shadow world, a shadow fox is born—half of the spirit world, half of the animal world. She too is fast—faster than fast—and she senses danger. She’s too young to know exactly what she senses, but she knows something is very wrong. And when Jules believes one last wish rock for Sylvie needs to be thrown into the river, the human and shadow worlds collide.

Writing in alternate voices—one Jules’s, the other the fox’s—Kathi Appelt and Alison McGhee tell the searingly beautiful tale of one small family’s moment of heartbreak, a moment that unfolds into one that is epic, mythic, shimmering, and most of all, hopeful.

 

Review:

“Maybe A Fox” is an absolutely beautiful book that I have no doubt will be in the running, and will most likely win, many prestigious awards.  It’s one of the rare children’s books that present the issues they live with in a frank manner, thereby avoiding the patronizing attitude with which children’s literature so often suffers.

Somehow, there is whimsy and hope mixed in amongst the realities of war and death.  The resilience of family is a central theme, along with the promise of hope in even the darkest situations.  Everyone needs to read “Maybe A Fox.”  It’s the type of story that will stay with children, as well as adults, throughout their lifetimes.

I’m not crying.  You’re crying.

This book is based upon a complimentary copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

 

Content Warning:

Death