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4.24 AVERAGE
4.24 AVERAGE
Big "Watership Down" vibes but in a good way. Illustrations were lovely. Also, Beatrice Potter as the bad guy was a vibe check I was not expecting. 10/10 on that one.
This MG book is a bluebonnet choice for the 2021 list so I had to check it out. Honestly, I read this book last year in 2019 but wanted to reread it again now that I saw it made the list.
Scary but in the "real world" sense. A mother fix sends her kits to a storyteller. This storyteller tells the stories of Mia and Uly, two kits orphaned and abondoned, who must lean on each other to survive the harsh realities of the natural world. Very suspenseful and difficult to read at times. My 9 year old enjoyed this book, too.
Mia and Uly, two young fox kits, have been separated from their families. They very quickly realize that the world is full of monsters and unspeakable creatures. As the kits wander together through the fields and the woods, they have to fight for their lives from a scary witch trying to take their skins, a disease that will turn them into zombies, a ghost hunting them in the snow, and so much more.
This book was not at all what I expected. It was much scarier than I anticipated for a children's book, but I have to admit that many kids (like myself at that age) love horror stories. This book definitely fits the bill if your child is looking for something scary. Some of the descriptions are quite gruesome, even for me.
The creative way that the character's stories are woven together is brilliant and the appearance of Beatrix Pottery is a delightful wickedness. The story contains quite a bit of mystery and it definitely kept me guessing about how things were going to come together.
Without a doubt, this story was unexpected. I would be very cautious about handing this book to a sensitive kid. If your child enjoys scary stories and creepy tales, then this will be a great and unexpected read for them!
This book was not at all what I expected. It was much scarier than I anticipated for a children's book, but I have to admit that many kids (like myself at that age) love horror stories. This book definitely fits the bill if your child is looking for something scary. Some of the descriptions are quite gruesome, even for me.
The creative way that the character's stories are woven together is brilliant and the appearance of Beatrix Pottery is a delightful wickedness. The story contains quite a bit of mystery and it definitely kept me guessing about how things were going to come together.
Without a doubt, this story was unexpected. I would be very cautious about handing this book to a sensitive kid. If your child enjoys scary stories and creepy tales, then this will be a great and unexpected read for them!
Delightfully spooky with great characters, vivid descriptions, and I loved the ending!
Review originally published 18 November 2019 at Falling Letters.
#OwnVoices: No (protagonist born with a shortened foreleg)
Content Warnings: Content warnings aren't spoilers but I use the tag here to allow for optional viewing.
I read Scary Stories for Young Foxes over two days in late October. As an autumn read, the book delighted me. The stories offer some properly frightening, chills inducing scenes. If I described each story individually, they might sound like monster-of-the-week. But the progression of Mia and Uly’s journeys keeps them more interesting than that. Each ‘monster’ frightens in its own distinct way. As the title of this post alludes, a Beatrix Potter who pursues taxidermy becomes a horrendous figure when seen through the eyes of a captured kit… (The story in which she features contains what I found to be the most morbid scenes in the book – the gutting of a rabbit Mia had been conversing with [pg. 98].) Some scenes become particularly creepy if you imagine the story was about people and not ‘just’ foxes, such as Mr. Scratch with his kingdom and his wives.
The ‘scary stories’ interconnect more than I expected. The first two stories read well enough as stand-alones. They’re the first part of a continuous narrative. They explain how two kits, Mia (whose siblings turn rabid) and Uly (the runt of a litter of cruel sisters), end up on their own. The eight stories alternate between Mia and Uly’s experiences, until the two connect. The framing device of seven kits listening to an old storyteller share terrifying tales on a “chilled autumn night” serves more to build suspense than link the stories together (as the stories chronologically continue from one another on their own). But that changes towards the end of the book, as the framing narrative becomes part of the conclusion to Mia and Uly’s story.
The Bottom Line: A wonderfully scary middle grade book (with perfectly matched illustrations). Part of the book takes place in winter, so it would work just as well for a haunting read in the dead of that season. I’ll place Scary Stories for Young Foxes next to [b: Coraline|17061|Coraline|Neil Gaiman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1493497435l/17061._SY75_.jpg|2834844] and [b:Spirit Hunters|25117605|Spirit Hunters|Ellen Oh|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1476437544l/25117605._SY75_.jpg|44812873] on my bookshelf.
#OwnVoices: No (protagonist born with a shortened foreleg)
Content Warnings: Content warnings aren't spoilers but I use the tag here to allow for optional viewing.
Spoiler
Abusive father, abusive siblings, animal deathsI read Scary Stories for Young Foxes over two days in late October. As an autumn read, the book delighted me. The stories offer some properly frightening, chills inducing scenes. If I described each story individually, they might sound like monster-of-the-week. But the progression of Mia and Uly’s journeys keeps them more interesting than that. Each ‘monster’ frightens in its own distinct way. As the title of this post alludes, a Beatrix Potter who pursues taxidermy becomes a horrendous figure when seen through the eyes of a captured kit… (The story in which she features contains what I found to be the most morbid scenes in the book – the gutting of a rabbit Mia had been conversing with [pg. 98].) Some scenes become particularly creepy if you imagine the story was about people and not ‘just’ foxes, such as Mr. Scratch with his kingdom and his wives.
The ‘scary stories’ interconnect more than I expected. The first two stories read well enough as stand-alones. They’re the first part of a continuous narrative. They explain how two kits, Mia (whose siblings turn rabid) and Uly (the runt of a litter of cruel sisters), end up on their own. The eight stories alternate between Mia and Uly’s experiences, until the two connect. The framing device of seven kits listening to an old storyteller share terrifying tales on a “chilled autumn night” serves more to build suspense than link the stories together (as the stories chronologically continue from one another on their own). But that changes towards the end of the book, as the framing narrative becomes part of the conclusion to Mia and Uly’s story.
The Bottom Line: A wonderfully scary middle grade book (with perfectly matched illustrations). Part of the book takes place in winter, so it would work just as well for a haunting read in the dead of that season. I’ll place Scary Stories for Young Foxes next to [b: Coraline|17061|Coraline|Neil Gaiman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1493497435l/17061._SY75_.jpg|2834844] and [b:Spirit Hunters|25117605|Spirit Hunters|Ellen Oh|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1476437544l/25117605._SY75_.jpg|44812873] on my bookshelf.
I totally see why this is a Newbery honor. Read for VCFA Semester 2 Packet 1, and for upcoming book club.
No, YOU cried at the end of a book about foxes. I’m not one for animal middle grade fiction but this was fabulous. Lightly scary page turner, wish I could have done it as a read aloud with my 4th and 5th traders in October. Will never look at Beatrix Potter the same way again!
I don't know that I'd give this book to a child, or read it to a child, or condone a child reading it. But it's exactly the kind of book I would have treasured as a child, because it's dark and violent and spooky and full of fear and sickness and death, all the stuff children's books normally avoid. This is a novel told in installments that somewhat mimic short stories, but it's really a single story with a frame story that it frequently returns to, as the main story is told to a litter of young foxes, by a storyteller with an agenda that gradually becomes clear. And those stories really are the equivalent of ghost stories for foxes, with rabies, sinister predators, vicious adult foxes, and other terrible threats in the villain role. Also there's an evil Beatrix Potter for some reason — and while a young fox's encounter with her initially seems like the human/rabbit encounter toward the end of Watership Down, with the animal just not in a position to understand human benevolence, it gets real dark and weird real quick. Even as a grown-ass adult, I was shocked at how grim this book gets. A certain kind of kid — the ones that value subversive books and scary ones — will love this.