Fox: A Circle of Life Story

In this nonfiction picture book from the creators of Moth, luminous collage-style images warm a narrative rooted in birth and death. A long sequence of spreads shows a mother fox hunting for food, then returning to her three cubs, who roughhouse and play at hunting while she’s gone. Then, in a single, shocking moment, the mother fox is struck and killed by a car, her copper figure shown against the blue sky: “Her heartbeat slows/ her last breath hangs in the air.” Following this event, Thomas turns to the process of decomposition: “Mites and magpies take their share.// Flies and beetles visit too,/ laying their eggs/ where they know/ brand new life can/ feed and grow.” What of the cubs? They look on curiously, then return home. The warm introductory family story of the first section and the dispassionate exploration of the second feel like disparate elements tacked awkwardly together. Older readers interested in the natural world and truths about predators and prey may be intrigued. Younger readers beguiled by the lovely fox family may find it upsetting. Ages 5–7. (Nov.)