Review by Booklist Review
The creators of Moth (2019) take on the often-avoided part of the life cycle: death. As a child and mother holding an infant walk through snowy woods, an omniscient narrator beseeches the reader, in lightly rhyming text, to follow another creature. Set against the crisp, white background, a fox, in mixed-media reds and oranges that give it beautiful, textured fur, hunts prey for her cubs. On Fox's return, a whiteout foreshadows her fate. But first, spring arrives, and energetic verbs describe the three cubs playing and learning to catch their own food. Soon, it's time for them to follow Fox across the road to test their skills in the woods. While the vulpine family heads back to the den after a successful hunt, the evocative whiteout occurs again. This time readers know the source is car headlights; Fox is hit and tossed to the side of the road. The cubs continue their life patterns; however, but Fox's importance isn't over. As her body decomposes through autumn and winter, every particle is used by insects and the soil. Concluding notes explain death in animals and plants, decomposition, and how death is the beginning of a new life cycle. Final scenes of a new mother fox and cubs and the human children more grown reaffirm these concepts. A touching, gorgeously rendered story that demystifies death.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this nonfiction picture book from the creators of Moth, luminous collage-style images warm a narrative rooted in birth and death. A long sequence of spreads shows a mother fox hunting for food, then returning to her three cubs, who roughhouse and play at hunting while she's gone. Then, in a single, shocking moment, the mother fox is struck and killed by a car, her copper figure shown against the blue sky: "Her heartbeat slows/ her last breath hangs in the air." Following this event, Thomas turns to the process of decomposition: "Mites and magpies take their share.// Flies and beetles visit too,/ laying their eggs/ where they know/ brand new life can/ feed and grow." What of the cubs? They look on curiously, then return home. The warm introductory family story of the first section and the dispassionate exploration of the second feel like disparate elements tacked awkwardly together. Older readers interested in the natural world and truths about predators and prey may be intrigued. Younger readers beguiled by the lovely fox family may find it upsetting. Ages 5--7. (Nov.)
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Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 4--This sensitive subject of the circle of life starts sweetly, with the fox mother's life and the joys and responsibilities of raising her young, then turns its focus on her sudden violent death, decomposition, and her contribution to nature. A well-written text along with the attractive art will fill a needed subject area, and it is an admirable teaching tool. However, preschoolers, attracted by the appearance of material, may not be ready for this book without first sharing it with an adult. The mother fox is hit by a car, and subsequently picked apart by magpies, with her flesh in their beaks, while beetles lay their eggs in her corpse. Yet, once explained, the material is accessible to preschoolers, because the beginning has simple text and illustrations that match the action. Older children will find a fuller description at the end. VERDICT An admirable book, beautifully presented, and meant to be shared intentionally and carefully with its audience.--Nancy Call, formerly at Santa Cruz P. L., Aptos, CA
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Review by Horn Book Review
"A death is the end of one life, but it is also the beginning of many more." This account of the life of a fox, by the creators of Moth: An Evolution Story (rev. 5/19), features the stages that rarely get attention: death and decomposition. The book opens similarly to other circle-of-life tales: a fox traverses wintertime and springtime landscapes in search of prey to feed her three growing cubs. As time passes, the cubs learn how to survive, jumping and playing across the pages, then silently echoing their mother's hunting stealth. Egneus's animals'-eye illustrations show lively red-orange foxes moving through equally colorful landscapes that creatively indicate shifts in the seasons, dotted with snowflakes in winter, fireflies in summer. Halfway through the book, in what some may find an unsettling turn, the mother fox is hit by a car and dies, slowly, over several pages; the young foxes note but do not mourn the loss. What happens next is extraordinary in writing and illustration: Thomas stays with the fox, explaining factually, yet reverently, the process of decomposition and the role of dead organisms in the full circle of life. "Every particle that was once fox finds a new place in the world...in grass, in trees, in rabbits, in bees, in daffodils dancing in the breeze." The accompanying images reflect this affirmative perspective, using bright colors and glowing dots ("particles") to show how the fox's body becomes a host to fungi and insects as well as food for other animals that aid in breaking it down. A concluding spread includes additional information on these processes. Danielle J. Ford November/December 2021 p.143(c) Copyright 2021. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The cycle of life in the natural world is explained using a fox as the subject. In this thoughtful picture book, a red fox hunts and feeds her family of three cubs; as the cubs play-hunt, they grow into learning to hunt for real. Then the mother fox is hit and killed by a car. This aspect of the story is presented without anthropomorphic emotion: "Three cubs look around / sniff the ground, / hesitate… / then pad back home." The story continues, focusing on the fox's body and what is happening to it as it decomposes. Staying with unemotional science, the narrative tells how the decomposing body nourishes life, from the scavengers and microbes that feed on it to the nutrients it releases to the soil and air. In this way, readers come to understand that death and life are inextricably linked and that death is a catalyst for new life. The collage-style, full-color illustrations show the maturing cubs continuing to thrive, reassuring readers and reinforcing the circle-of-life theme. The illustrations vary presentations, alternating double-page spreads, spots, and full-page spreads. The images of the foxes are lively and delicate, while the forest world depicted creates an evocative setting. A thorough, scientific explanation of what happens to the physical body after death is presented at the book's end. Members of a human family briefly illustrated have black hair and light beige skin. An adept and impressive handling of a sensitive subject. (Picture book. 5-10) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
