The Midnight Fox

Lovely. I'm surprised it's not a Newbery Honor, as it reads just like them. Getting inside Tom's head is a trip - and a real education in empathy. I can imagine some kids would be bored, and of course now some of the details are out-of-date (color television, reluctance to realize city boy wouldn't want to kill fox, young woman getting married to guy who demands she lose 20 lbs). But this book is brilliantly written and would appeal to any sensitive & imaginative reader, young or old.

Tom hates having to spend the summer on a farm . . . until he discovers the midnight fox.

No one asked Tom how he felt about spending two months on his Aunt Millie’s farm. For a city boy, the farm holds countless terrors—stampeding baby lambs, boy-chasing chickens, and worst of all, loneliness. But everything changes when Tom sees the midnight fox. He can spend hours watching the graceful black fox in the woods. And when her life—and that of her cub—is in danger, Tom knows exactly what he must do.

Tom thinks that going to his relatives' farm will be just as bad as every other athletic thing his parents have forced him to do. It starts out bad, but Tom spots a black fox and spends the summer watching her and her baby. Towards the end, the fox gets into the chickens, and his uncle hunts it by catching the baby and putting it in a cage. Tom releases the baby in the middle of the night, but his Aunt and Uncle understand.

Tom has a rich imaginative life but lacks the brawn and sporting prowess of his father, brothers and cousins. During his holiday with country relatives he closely observes a fox and her cubs and thwarts plans to destroy them. Tom writes funny letters to his city friend.

My copy has no ISBN number anywhere, but this cover is associated with ISBN 0140370331

00008781