Author Patricia C McKissack retells a story from her childhood, as told by her grandfather. It's the story of young Flossie Finley and her adventure with a fox. Flossie is sent on an errand to take eggs to a nearby farm, because that farm is having problems with a fox. On her way through the woods, Flossie encounters a fox. She tricks the fox by claiming that she doesn't believe he IS a fox. The fox goes to great efforts to convince Flossie, to no avail. The book has beautiful illustrations that leap off the page and a storytelling style that clearly resembles that of her grandfather. Some readers may struggle with the vernacular.

1. Summary - This book is about a little girl given a task by her mother to deliver eggs to a neighboring farm, who had had all their eggs eaten by a fox. Flossie didn't know what a fox was for she hadn't ever seen one but she went on about her task. She ran across a creature she'd never seen before that swore he was a fox and Flossie swore he wasn't and gave reason for her thinking this way too. Finally she got to the farm with the fox in tow still trying to persuade her that he was a fox when the farm dog chased the fox away. All along Flossie knew he was a fox but used her clever brain to distract him so she would be safe on her journey.

2. Personal Reaction - I loved this book and how the words really represented how her family and she would talk and how she outsmarted the fox while we were not sure she even knew what he was.

3. Extension Ideas -
1. I could use this in my classroom to expand my students vocabulary since they use different terms for certain things like feline for cat etc.
2. I could use this in my classroom to enhance my word wall.
3. I could use this in my classroom to show how different cultures have different ways of life and make a lesson out of the subject like animals or farms or Louisiana.

a good story, and well told. The telling is obviously southern, but without being twee about it or overemphasizing the language. The character is a little girl, but there's no big deal made of it. This book delicately avoids that terrible trap of making it's diversity feel like a difference; it just is. It's lovely. ( )

Wonderful illustrations augment this clever book. Flossie's grandmother tells her that a fox in the area is stealing the eggs. Giving her a full basket of eggs to deliver to a nearby house, Flossie comes upon a Fox. Asking him a series of questions to prove he is indeed a fox, she succeeds in arriving at her destination safely and with the same amount of eggs she had when she started.

This is a lovely tale of a very wise girl who outfoxed the fox. ( )

This is a reinvented fairy tale version of Little Red Riding Hood. In this story, a young girl named Flossie outwits the cunning fox with her clever ingenuity. Flossie questions if the fox is really a fox and he has a hard time proving himself. In the end, Flossie turns out to be the hero of the story.

Teaching Connections: adapted fairy tales, fairy tale study, sequencing, comparing and contrasting, character study, dialect (southern), visualizing, making connections, making inferences, summarizing, making predictions, asking questions ( )