Shadow Fox

This magical adventure story is narrated by a prickly, wild fox, who, as well as sharing her love of fish and shoes and her distrust of all humans, initially tells us her name is YAAAARRRRAAAWWWAAAAAARRR! Tired, cold and hungry, the fox comes across Bee, the granddaughter of a lady who had occasionally been feeding her and was perhaps the only human she trusted. But Nan has gone missing and, in their efforts to find her, Bee and the fox find themselves transported to another world, fighting a fierce enemy in a bid to save all that they love back home.

This is an unusual story, and I’ll admit it took me a little while to get into it, but as the adventure progressed, I did get swept into the wintery world of the mysterious islands and the fox’s magical powers. Author Carlie Sorosiak’s previous titles have shown her love of animals and here again, our fox is the star of the show. There is much talk of a ‘chosen one’ who will come to save the islanders and some will stop at nothing to prevent this happening. The once distrustful animal, thankfully renamed Shadow, shares a magical bond with the human girl Bee where they can read each other’s thoughts and when Shadow discovers previously unknown powers and all seems lost, it is the power of friendship that saves them all.

A main theme of the book is the threat to the natural world due to the actions of humans, which is an excellent spark for environmental discussions on the correlation with occurrences on our own planet. A magical, topical tale for lovers of fantasy and the natural world.