Review by New York Times Review
FOXES ARE FABLE ANIMALS: Their fur carries the electric charge of literary history. As with cats, their faces suggest they have no need of us, and in literature they have all the power that goes with independence. There are the foxes in Machiavelli's "The Prince" ("One must therefore be a fox to recognize traps....") and Jean de La Fontaine's verses, and there's Disney's Robin Hood, matinee idol that he was. For me the most memorable literary fox until now has been the baby fox in Ted Hughes's poem "Epiphany" - a distilled ball of "mannerless energy" and "old smell," and a test of the poet's ability to bend his life and marriage to fit the presence of something so wild and destructive, and so beautiful. Pax, the eponymous fox of Sara Pennypacker's new novel, is built on the model of Hughes's cub, half wild and half domesticated, a galvanic presence fit to join the ranks of fiction's great foxes. The novel is told through alternating chapters, with one strand following 12-year-old Peter and the other Pax, as each grows wilder and tougher. After the death of his mother, we learn, Peter had rescued a baby fox from the cold and reared it as a pet and friend. When his father enlists in an unspecified war ("It's heading for our town. They'll take the river"), Peter is sent to live with his grandfather, and Pax is sent into the wild, the car speeding away as he watches in bewilderment. In the opening chapters Peter rebels, slipping out in the night to walk 200 miles back to the spot where Pax was released. What follows is, structurally, a classic quest narrative; Peter walks through dark woods both literally and metaphorically, breaks his foot, encounters characters who help or threaten him. The most vivid of these is Vola, a female war veteran with a prosthetic leg who takes Peter in, and together they face down their own traumas: the suffering of war, physical pain and inherited anger. What makes the book truly remarkable are two things: the quality of Penny packer's prose, which is sharp and restless and vulpine, and the pull of the love between Peter and Pax. There are resonances in this love of Katherine Applegate's Newbery Medal-winning "The One and Only Ivan," which shares the intimate use of the animal voice. "Pax" also offers a meditation on the bond between children and animals, and how the longing for closeness to the animal world shapes childhood : the desire to touch, to squeeze, to be loyal to something as familiar and as unknowable as a pet. Of course, for a writer to give voice to an animal is to purport to offer up a secret, and the difficulty becomes how to tell it without shading into cuteness. Many writers, even Kipling, have failed, in books in which the animal becomes the mouthpiece for the moral. Like Applegate and E.B. White before her, Pennypacker succeeds. In an author's note, she explains that "fox communication is a complex system of vocalization, gesture, scent and expression. The 'dialogue' in italics in Pax's chapters attempts to translate their eloquent language." Pennypacker, the author of several well-regarded books for children, including the "Clementine" early chapter-book series, uses the chapters in which Pax speaks to deliver something more, too: a sense of enchantment in a landscape freshly discovered, as Pax explores the natural world for the first time in the company of feral foxes. "Pax" is not comparable tonally to "Charlotte's Web" - it has less irony and wit and a less insouciant protagonist - but Penny packer does share White's resistance to sentimentality, offering in its place a pragmatic kind of awe. White wrote that he "always felt charged with the safekeeping of all unexpected items of worldly or unworldly enchantment, as though I might be held personally responsible if even one were to be lost." In this aspect, Pennypacker, with "Pax," may be his heir. The book is illustrated by the Caldecott Medal winner Jon Klassen, whose style is a perfect fit. His sharpness of line maps onto the jagged, sharp-edged quality of growing up, which Peter must do. In the end, Peter builds himself back up from scratches and mistakes, piecemeal, and ends the journey braver and bolder and wiser than he began it. "Pax" the book is like Pax the fox : half wild and wholly beautiful. KATHERINE RUNDELL is a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. She is the author of the novels "Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms," "Rooftoppers" and "The Wolf Wilder."
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [February 7, 2016]
Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Peter and Pax, his pet fox he found as a kit on the day of his mother's funeral, are inseparable. That is, until Peter's dad enlists in the military and Peter is forced to abandon Pax before moving to his grandfather's house. Almost as soon as he gets there, however, he slips out, determined to hike the hundreds of miles back to where he left his pet. Not long into his journey, he is injured and reluctantly taken in by Vola, a war veteran and amputee who stubbornly lives on her own. In chapters from the fox's point of view, Pax struggles in the wild until a grizzled old fox agrees to help him get home. Pennypacker alternates between Pax's and Peter's perspectives, while the simmering war between unnamed countries grows dangerously close to home. As she slowly reveals secrets about Peter's and Vola's pasts, she sensitively and engagingly explores questions about anger, wildness, isolation, and family. Meanwhile, both fox and boy grow in unexpected ways. While there's a lot of emotional complexity here, the focus is solidly on the earthy, tense wilderness adventure, which is likely what will draw young readers most. Pennypacker's expert, evenhanded storytelling reveals stunning depth in a relatively small package. Final illustrations by Caldecott Medal winner Klassen not seen. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Pennypacker is no stranger to the New York Times best-seller list, and with award-winning Klassen in the mix, this adventure story should easily find a wildly enthusiastic audience.--Hunter, Sarah Copyright 2015 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Peter found Pax, a fox, when he was an orphaned kit, and he has kept him as a pet since his mother's sudden death, five years earlier. Now Peter's stern father is bound for an unspecified war-one fought at least partly on domestic soil-forcing 12-year-old Peter to move in with his grandfather, and to release Pax. It takes less than a night for Peter to become overwhelmed with remorse-by morning, he is hiking hundreds of miles to the spot where he reluctantly abandoned Pax. The aftermath of that separation is told in chapters that alternate between the fox and the boy's points of view. In an exceptionally powerful, if grim story, Pennypacker (Summer of the Gypsy Moths) does a remarkable job of conveying the gritty perspective of a sheltered animal that must instantly learn to live in the wild ("Orphaned before he'd been weaned, Pax had never eaten raw prey. His hunger rose at the blood-scent and so did his curiosity"). Both boy and fox encounter characters who drastically rearrange their worldview: after Peter is injured, he is taken in by Vola, a veteran who has lost a leg and has strong feelings about the true costs of war. The opening scene promises heartbreak that the rest of the story delivers, as boy and fox journey to reunite, each dramatically altered by what it takes to get there. Art not seen by PW. Ages 8-12. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-7-With moving prose, Pennypacker tells an unusual, viscerally affecting story of war, loss, and the power of friendship. Alternating perspectives between a boy and his pet fox, the novel tracks each character's quest to reunite after their forced separation in a conflict-ridden landscape. Klassen's black-and-white drawings add to the haunting atmosphere of this startling title that children and adults will want to discuss together. © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Twelve-year-old Peter and his pet fox have been inseparable since Peter rescued Pax as a kit. Now Peters father has enlisted, and theres no room at Grandfathers house (where the boy will be staying) for a fox, tame or otherwise; Peters father forces his son to release Pax into the wild. Heartsick, Peter soon decides to run away to find Pax. He stumbles onto the land of a woman named Vola, a hermit who reluctantly helps the boy regain his strength after an injury and whose own tragic backstory gradually emerges. Omniscient third-person chapters alternate between Peters story and that of Pax, who falls in with a young vixen, her fox-kit brother, and an aging alpha who takes Pax under his protection as the fox tries to find his boy. Pennypackers setting is stark, the details of time and place intentionally murky, with occasional textured black-and-white illustrations by Klassen playing up scenes both ordinary-seeming (a boy in a baseball dugout) and subtly menacing (flowers trampled into the ground). Just because it isnt happening here doesnt mean it isnt happening reads the books epigraph, and readers are kept off-balance throughout as soldiers, including Peters father, amass and prepare for an unnamed war against unidentified combatants thats poised to take place practically in Peters backyard. An emotional, thought-provoking story of conflict, loyalty, and love. elissa gershowitz (c) Copyright 2016. 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
A motherless boy is forced to abandon his domesticated fox when his father decides to join soldiers in an approaching war. Twelve-year-old Peter found his loyal companion, Pax, as an orphaned kit while still grieving his own mother's death. Peter's difficult and often harsh father said he could keep the fox "for now" but five years later insists the boy leave Pax by the road when he takes Peter to his grandfather's house, hundreds of miles away. Peter's journey back to Pax and Pax's steadfastness in waiting for Peter's return result in a tale of survival, intrinsic connection, and redemption. The battles between warring humans in the unnamed conflict remain remote, but the oncoming wave of deaths is seen through Pax's eyes as woodland creatures are blown up by mines. While Pax learns to negotiate the complications of surviving in the wild and relating to other foxes, Peter breaks his foot and must learn to trust a seemingly eccentric woman named Vola who battles her own ghosts of war. Alternating chapters from the perspectives of boy and fox are perfectly paced and complementary. Only Peter, Pax, Vola, and three of Pax's fox companions are named, conferring a spare, fablelike quality. Every moment in the graceful, fluid narrative is believable. Klassen's cover art has a sense of contained, powerful stillness. (Interior illustrations not seen.) Moving and poetic. (Animal fantasy. 9-13) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
