Scary Stories for Little Foxes by Christian McKay Heidicker

-

Heidicker, C. (2019). Scary Stories for Young Foxes. (J. Wu, Illus.) Henry Holt and Company.

      An adventurous tale with a tinge of horror, this book follows three separate plots that slowly come together as one. Our first plot is one of a litter of kits wanting to hear a story that is so frightening it will turn the tips of their tales white. They go to the den of an older fox that is known for sharing this kind of tale. This plot is what mainly pushes the book forward, coming in between each scary story to serve as a palette cleanser and to engage the reader. The kits listening to and engaging with the story serve as surrogates for the reader, asking the questions they are bound to be asking themselves and sharing reactions. Encouraging the kits to keep listening and paying attention, the old fox is also engaging with the reader, compelling them to continue reading as well.

    The other two plots alternate until they come together, one following a kit named Mia and the other following a kit named Uly. Both characters are faced with harrowing events in their first stories and continue to face challenges throughout the book. Their harrowing events reflect common horror stories that the reader is sure to recognize: a zombie story and a boogeyman story. The reader will be intrigued enough to keep reading to see how this version of the classic horror tales turn out. Through each story, the two main foxes continue to face horrifying challenges, some similar to classic horror tales and others fox specific, but eventually come together, linking the two plots and creating a new grander one. Through this new plot, the reader watches these two fox kits grow into adult foxes, learning how to survive in a harsh world. Both are travelling to look for someone important to them, continuously staring death in the eye in every tale. The reader will stay engaged wanting to find out if they ever find who they are looking for and even more if they will even survive the journey.

     Because there are horror elements, the building of tension is a big component and style of this story. Heindicker does this well by both using common horror tropes and accelerating the pace when necessary. During action filled moments, the words flow seamlessly allowing the action and tension to move the reader through quickly as the reader would want to know what happens and reach the end as fast as possible to find out. There are some moments of introspection and connection that slow down the story, giving the reader a moment to take a breather and take in the deeper themes present in the story. 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpré

-
Image
Denis, A. (2019). Planting stories: The life of librarian and storyteller Pura Belpré. (P. Escobar, Illus.) Harper. This book tells the life story of Pura Belpr é , the first Puerto Rican librarian in New York City, from her visit to America in 1921 to the end of her life. The author, Anika Aldamuy Denise, felt a connection to this story because she is also a storyteller in a family of immigrants. Pura Belpr é brings a sense of pride to Denise, encouraging her to tell Pura’s story well and accurately, and she does. Spanning through the entirety of a life may seem like too large a scope, but Denise makes sure to mainly focus on the most impactful moments like creating puppets for her stories, sending her stories to a publisher, and getting married. This allows the reader to witness the full impact and scope of Pura’s life in the small amount of space a picture book provides. To keep the culture alive within the text, Denise includes Spanish words and phrases often allowing the context ...
Read more

Not So Different: What You Really Want to Ask About Having a Disability by Shane Burcaw

-
Image
Burcaw, S. (2017). Not so different: What you really want to ask about having a disability. (M. Carr, Illus.) Roaring Brook Press.         Shane Burcaw was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy as a baby and has been living with this disability ever since. This also means he has been dealing with the curiosities of people regarding what it is like to live with a disability since then which encouraged him to author this book on himself and his experiences. Though the title may imply that it is a book on disabilities in general, it is more specifically about Burcaw’s life with SMA describing a unique experience that cannot be applied to everyone, making him the best authority on the subject. The book is written in a conversational tone with every subject being introduced by a question he is commonly asked. The book then follows the flow of how a typical conversation revolving this subject with follow-up questions to better explain mentioned facts that many may no...
Read more

New Kid by Jerry Craft

-
Image
Craft, J. (2019). New kid. (J. Craft, Illus.) Quill Tree Books. New Kid follows the story of a twelve-year-old Black boy, Jordan, who starts to attend a new mostly white private school in graphic novel format. Each illustration is full of color bringing to life the wide range of characters and the many New York settings. In a full page spread split into three panels describing the crowd of students arriving to school as zombies, the street setting as a background shines through with rows of unique bodegas that could actually exist on a New York City street. Alongside the typical comic panels, this book also features sketched illustrations that are meant to represent the sketches that Jordan draws in his journal throughout the story. These spreads are black and white and look to be drawn with pen or pencil to look as close to a journal sketch as possible. The only bits of color on these spreads are items that are on the border of each image to really enhance the perspective the reader i...
Read more