The Christmas Fox

McGrory (Quick, Slow, Mango!) transplants the Nativity story to a snowy woodland setting, where a puppylike fox ignores the urgings of his fellow animals as they prepare for the baby’s arrival. “Come!” says a brown cow, peering back at the fox as it trudges toward a distant barn. “A baby is coming. There’s a place to make warm with sweet-smelling hay.” Instead, the fox romps in the woods, eventually coming to believe that he has nothing to share with the child. “Just come,” urges the donkey. “It is enough.” It’s a distinctly allegorical version of the story—Mary and Joseph are unseen, and fox’s recalcitrance recalls Aesop’s “The Ant and the Grasshopper.” Yet McGrory’s soft, gestural artwork, washed with pale color and infused with lemony light, celebrate the fox’s play, and his joyful spirit is a gift both to the waiting child and to readers. Ages 3–7.[em] Agent: Victoria Wells Arms, Wells Arms Literary. (Oct.) [/em]