Little Fox in the Snow

In this account of a day in the life of a young fox by London (the Froggy series), the first spread peeks into the animal’s den. In the velvety dark, a beam of sunlight strikes the curled-up fox. It opens one eye and wakes: “You stretch,/ then follow your breath.../ out into the snow./ Little foxling, where will you go?” A fox must eat. It nabs a mouse but needs more. A snowshoe hare loses the chase, “no match/ for a fleet-footed fox.” It drinks, in a wide-view scene that takes in the stream and the bare trees beyond. After evading a wolverine in a heart-pounding series of spreads, the fox returns to its burrow and the sun sets. “Little foxling, what do you dream?” the narrator wonders, and Miyares (That Is My Dream!) paints the forms of a vixen and a fox family as constellations in the winter sky. London energetically conveys an animal’s primal concerns, while Miyares’s rough strokes and bold washes emphasize a winter forest’s web-of-life realities and stark beauty. Ages 4–8. (Nov.)