A New Home for Fox - Ellen DeLange - ★★★.½

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AUTHOR: Ellen DeLange
ILLUSTRATOR: Agnes Ofner
GENRE: Children's Picture Book
PUBLICATION DATE: October 19, 2021
RATING: 3.5 stars.

Fox gets chased out of his home by some dogs and he finds himself in a new forest where the animals are not so welcoming. They seem to judge him by his reputation rather than giving him a chance. However, when a wild boar attacks, it is thanks to Fox’s cunning and resourcefulness that the rest of the animals are saved. And this is how they accept him into their circle and make a new home for him in this forest.

Considering only this plot, the story is good enough, though it is never explained why Fox never attempts to find his way back home though he wants to. Still, the prose is nicely structured and the language is pretty manageable. So judging the story simply by virtue of what it presents, it becomes a nice tale of friendship and acceptance, and warns against the perils of judging others based on appearances or reputation without trying to know them.

However, there are a few things that rang the wrong bell for me.
1. The animals accepted Fox only after he put his own life at risk trying to save them from the boar. That seems a bit selfish and I don’t know what kind of message this sends out. Do we trust and befriend only those people who are willing to make huge sacrifices for us?
2. There is a family of chickens whom Fox approaches for help. Now, why exactly would chickens help out a fox, and can we truly blame them when they drive him away?
3. The blurb of this book on Amazon says that the book is a “conversation starter about the immigrant and refugee experience”. I found this connection tenuous. If I hadn’t read this line, I might not even have linked the story to the refugee experience. And even if I had, I would still go back to point 1. A refugee isn’t supposed to prove himself invaluable before being accepted into a new location. It sends the wrong idea.

At first glance, the illustrations appear wonderful. The colours are vibrant and the sketches, cute. The animals and their emotions are depicted well. However, there are certain discrepancies. For instance, when the dogs come barking into the fox’s cave, there is a family of some rodents fast asleep just below Fox’s cavern. How come they weren’t disturbed by this pack of aggressive dogs? In the scene of the wild boar’s attack, the wild boar is drawn almost as tall as the trees, far taller than even the deer escaping from him. How is that possible?

Overall, as long as you don’t overanalyse the story and just read it to children stressing on the moral (making sure to point out the flaw in it), the book might just work. I liked the premise, but I feel that the execution could have been better. The book is targeted at readers aged 5 years and up.

My thanks to Clavis Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC of “A New Home for Fox”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

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