Reviews - Pax | The StoryGraph

1.79k reviews for:

Pax

Sara Pennypacker

3.93 AVERAGE

maddiet51's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

akmarge13's review against another edition

3.0

I was enjoying the story up until the end; 95% of the book is a heartwarming story about a boy and his fox, about perseverance, about picking yourself up when you fall, and finding your peace. The ending, however, was abrupt and disconnected from the message of the rest of the story. Despite this disappointment, I think this a great book to create discussion between parents and children about the impacts of war and how truly loving someone means making sacrifices.

sage01's review against another edition

3.0

All of the nature bits are really well-done, which is most of the book, so yay. There's also a nice message concerning found-family vs birth-family.

The abusive father-abused son relationship and the nature of the war over water (and the world-building in general) leave a lot to be desired. The depiction of PTSD is not especially accurate, but I'm not mad at the simplification since this is a middle-grade book.

Disability tag for a female veteran with a prosthetic leg, unprocessed survivor's guilt, and severe untreated PTSD.

lrmsreads's review against another edition

4.0

War is coming and Peter is being sent to live with his grandfather. Pax by Sara Pennypacker begins when Peter's father forces him to drop his fox, Pax, in the woods on the way to his grandfather's house. The rest of the book alternates between Peter and Pax as they face mounting obstacles in their quest to get back to each other. It's a beautiful story about growing up for both of them. And, it asks some very big questions about the costs of war and the way humans interact with and treat nature and animals. It was a really great story. I enjoyed it from the beginning, but it got off to a slow start for my 10 year old. He kept telling me it was boring, but on the night he brought it out to me after he finished it, he told me it was a really good book.

hickeypicks's review against another edition

4.0

Very inventive with great character development. I loved the animal point of view and the character development. This is a good read for a child that loves animals or likes books on survival and adventure. I can't wait to see the Jon Klassen illustrations in the final published book.

jkelley610's review against another edition

3.0

A book that was purchased for my kiddo, although she hasn't read it yet. My husband read it, though, and really enjoyed it - so I read it too. I thought it was good but not amazing.