Scary Stories for Young Foxes: family, sacrifice & bone-chilling danger

 

Scary Stories for Young Foxes by Christian McKay Heidicker and illustrations by Junyi Wu is a chapter book for older readers (age 10 and above) who enjoy good stories with danger, villains, underdogs and family.  

When 6 kits approach an older vixen storyteller for a spooky tale, it's not surprising that only one kit remains to hear the last of the story.  Told in 8 chapters, each story builds upon the last one with clues that make them more complex than they seem.  Readers can use the names of the chapters and the illustrations that accompany them to predict what will happen next.  There are humorous moments but those moments change to doubt as to the survival of the foxes in the story. 

The way the story is told from the perspective of the foxes is what makes this book stand out. There is always fear and uncertainty in the wild but to read it from the point of view an animal in that world is unique.  It made me understand animals much better and what they have to do in order to survive.  

Questions that come to mind when reading this is if the reader agrees with the decisions made by the various characters in the story.  Which chapter did they like the most?  Were they surprised by the ending or did they see it coming?

Be Not Far From Me: "The world is not tame."

"The world is not tame."  With these 5 words, Mindy McGinnis takes the reader on quite a journey into the wild.  In Be Not Far From Me the reader meets Ashley, a high school junior who is on her way to a campout in Tennessee's mountains with her friends and boyfriend. When she catches her boyfriend cheating on her in the middle of the night she runs away from the campsite only to fall and injure her foot.  In the morning when she awakes she finds herself without shoes and socks and her foot is in bad shape.  Not only that, but she cannot find the trail back to her friends.  

Ashely is in trouble. She has a major injury and no supplies so she relies on her memories of her camp counselor to guide her.  The same counselor who went missing in these same woods. Ashley must contend with the wildness of nature, predators, and doing what she absolutely has to do in order to survive.

Very graphic descriptions, like a young adult version of Alive and 127 Hours.