A review by stacygiven
Scary Stories for Young Foxes by Christian McKay Heidicker

4.0

It is difficult to pin down exactly what I think of this one. On the one hand, it is a quite unpleasant and disturbing book. It is a children’s book and, as a child, I would have absolutely hated it. One: I was easily frightened and hated scary stories. Two: I was much more vested in animal characters than human ones and much more upset when bad things happened to animals. So eight-year-old Stacy likely wouldn’t have made it past the first few pages of this one. Even thirty-nine-year-old Stacy considered stopping after the first two stories.

And that would have been a shame. Because it is also a quite beautiful and brilliant book. It is very well written. The illustrations are lovely. Much of the brilliance (and trauma) lies in the fact that the horror, while still sticking to traditional horror forms, is all true to life. Foxes likely do face most of this kind of brutality pretty regularly. But when the foxes are anthropomorphic and relatable, it makes for a gruesome read. It is reminiscent of “Watership Down”, but I liked this one considerably more.

Great choice for all those kids who crave disturbing stories. Just make sure they can handle baby animals being in constant peril and dying terrible deaths. For the more tender-hearted children: wait awhile.

Side note: I will not easily forgive this author for making Beatrix Potter into a villain. Not cool Heidicker, not cool.