The Fox and the Wild

An urban fox’s search for a more conducive environment than his noisy, smoky city home begins when he and his cousins are disturbed during one of their nocturnal raids on the local bins. The foxes scatter leaving Fred heading off in the opposite direction from his fellow marauders. Having climbed onto the rooftops he spies a flock of birds flying overhead and resolves to follow them, despite being told by other city dwelling animals that ‘beyond the city’ doesn’t exist.

Then a bird drops out of the sky before him and the two converse, the bird telling Fred about his wild home. Undaunted by the bird’s ‘You’ll never reach it without flying,’ Fred sets off hunting for ‘the wild’.

Having explored various places, some bare, some very smoky, and some downright dangerous, our explorer comes upon a hole in the wall. That hole is the entrance to a tunnel down which a somewhat scared Fred heads, and finally emerges in a wonderful green, tree-filled place with soft earth, brightly coloured flowers and an uplifting fresh aroma. But that’s not quite the end of his journey: what he finds over the hills he traverses is even more exciting than all the flora around him …

I love this story with its gentle environmental message: McFarland’s splendid mixed media illustrations are a joy, with Fred emerging as a real character; and the book is a great one to share both with individuals and groups.