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3.93 AVERAGE
3.93 AVERAGE
2019 Read Harder Challenge: A book in which an animal or inanimate object is a point-of-view character
This isn't really a bad two star review ... it's just okay. Pax is a children's book that has gotten some literary awards and quite a few glowing reviews. Even though it isn't my normal choice of book I thought I'd give it a try and see if it could make the cut as a good family drive book. Unfortunately this one didn't hit the spot for me. It felt like a book that was really trying to pull off an emotional payoff moment, but it could never quite seal the deal. I just couldn't connect with the HEART of this story.
Pax seems to have all the elements needed for a children's book to pack an emotional punch. There is a little boy and his pet fox who are separated. Peter, the boy, realizes almost immediately that it was a mistake to put his pet fox back into the wild, so he heads off on an adventure to try to find him again. Pax, the fox, loves his boy and works to reunite as well. The story is told through alternating chapters looking through Peter's and then Pax's experiences. Woven throughout this story is a tale of the tragedy of war as Peter and Pax are continuously thrown into the path of a nearby war as well as the consequences that war has on the world around it.
This was a nice enough story, but so much of the time I felt like I was being a bit manipulated as a reader into feeling or thinking of things that the author wanted me to feel or think. So I get that ... almost every author wants their readers to feel or think more deeply about the themes in their books. There's no crime in that. But in my opinion the best authors are able to make me feel and think deeply without making it seem like there is some sort of agenda in the story. The beauty of their writing is that I find myself thinking more deeply simply because of a powerful story or powerful characters. I didn't feel that way with this book. There was no magic here ... at least none that grabbed hold of me and kept me engaged in this story.
I am sure I must have just missed some key points of this book, but I had a hard time placing a time or place for this story. There were elements that made it seem like it was a modern day story taking place in my country. But then something would change and I would feel like it was from decades before and maybe in a different country. Plus, I kept wondering how there seemed to be a serious war going on, and yet in a fairly nearby community they were doing things like having baseball leagues. I get that life goes on, even during war, but it seems like a few hundred miles between peace and battle was cutting it close.
This is a children's book, and so the sentences are not very complex. I'm sure that wouldn't have mattered if I was reading the book, but when listening to the audible narration it made the book sound too choppy. It was a hard book to listen to. Maybe things would have felt better to me if I had read the book myself. I don't know.
And then there was the ending. What was up with that? I'm not quite sure what I was supposed to think about it.
I'm sure this is an it's-me-not-you sort of review since there are so many who enjoyed this story. I can only give it two stars, It was okay.
Pax seems to have all the elements needed for a children's book to pack an emotional punch. There is a little boy and his pet fox who are separated. Peter, the boy, realizes almost immediately that it was a mistake to put his pet fox back into the wild, so he heads off on an adventure to try to find him again. Pax, the fox, loves his boy and works to reunite as well. The story is told through alternating chapters looking through Peter's and then Pax's experiences. Woven throughout this story is a tale of the tragedy of war as Peter and Pax are continuously thrown into the path of a nearby war as well as the consequences that war has on the world around it.
This was a nice enough story, but so much of the time I felt like I was being a bit manipulated as a reader into feeling or thinking of things that the author wanted me to feel or think. So I get that ... almost every author wants their readers to feel or think more deeply about the themes in their books. There's no crime in that. But in my opinion the best authors are able to make me feel and think deeply without making it seem like there is some sort of agenda in the story. The beauty of their writing is that I find myself thinking more deeply simply because of a powerful story or powerful characters. I didn't feel that way with this book. There was no magic here ... at least none that grabbed hold of me and kept me engaged in this story.
I am sure I must have just missed some key points of this book, but I had a hard time placing a time or place for this story. There were elements that made it seem like it was a modern day story taking place in my country. But then something would change and I would feel like it was from decades before and maybe in a different country. Plus, I kept wondering how there seemed to be a serious war going on, and yet in a fairly nearby community they were doing things like having baseball leagues. I get that life goes on, even during war, but it seems like a few hundred miles between peace and battle was cutting it close.
This is a children's book, and so the sentences are not very complex. I'm sure that wouldn't have mattered if I was reading the book, but when listening to the audible narration it made the book sound too choppy. It was a hard book to listen to. Maybe things would have felt better to me if I had read the book myself. I don't know.
And then there was the ending. What was up with that? I'm not quite sure what I was supposed to think about it.
I'm sure this is an it's-me-not-you sort of review since there are so many who enjoyed this story. I can only give it two stars, It was okay.
“Sometimes the apple rolls very far from the tree.”
I picked up Pax by Sara Pennypacker at the recommendation of my 11 year old niece. Because when your niece asks you to read a book, you read it! I can absolutely see why she loved it, and why she thought I would as well. Pax is the story of a orphaned fox rescued by a young boy named Peter and raised domestically for five years. Then, war arrives, and Peter and Pax are separated and must find one another again. The story takes some predictable and also some not-so-predictable twists and turns, and features some lovely parallels and explorations of what it means to find oneself and to heal from tragedy. It reminded me in ways of Homeward Bound (I still cannot watch that film without bawling...) and maybe a little bit of Where The Red Fern Grows. It's a really lovely story, and I'm so excited to discuss this with my niece... and hear what her next recommendation is going to be.
I picked up Pax by Sara Pennypacker at the recommendation of my 11 year old niece. Because when your niece asks you to read a book, you read it! I can absolutely see why she loved it, and why she thought I would as well. Pax is the story of a orphaned fox rescued by a young boy named Peter and raised domestically for five years. Then, war arrives, and Peter and Pax are separated and must find one another again. The story takes some predictable and also some not-so-predictable twists and turns, and features some lovely parallels and explorations of what it means to find oneself and to heal from tragedy. It reminded me in ways of Homeward Bound (I still cannot watch that film without bawling...) and maybe a little bit of Where The Red Fern Grows. It's a really lovely story, and I'm so excited to discuss this with my niece... and hear what her next recommendation is going to be.
really well written but in the end probably not for me. i couldn't really connect with any of the characters, there were just too many things that i wasn't 'buying' into
i was engaged for the first hour or so (20%) of the story but after that, i lost interest in the fox storyline.
i was engaged for the first hour or so (20%) of the story but after that, i lost interest in the fox storyline.
A sweet story about a boy who forms an endearing relationship with a tame fox while struggling with the loss of his mother and an emotionally distant father. His father goes to fight in a war, and Peter is forced to give up his beloved fox. "People should tell the truth about war costs."
This was a strange book in a few ways, but it worked for me. It was a typical sad animal story, and also a typical sad war story, in some respects...but for me the emotional through lines were much more complex than you typically see in stories like those, and they were very, very well done. While it was a bit frustrating to wonder about and never get all the information, I liked the way the emotional aspects were given all the weight of the story, while some of the details (of the war, of the time period, of the location, etc.) were not there because they were pretty literally the backdrop. The language was really beautiful too, and it made a good read-aloud.
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Yikes, this was so boring. Could not even bring myself to finish it.