Fox by Margaret Wild illustrated by Ron Brooks

"Through the charred forest, over hot ash, runs Dog with a bird clamped in his big, gentle mouth. He takes her to his cave above the river, and there he tries to tend her burnt wing."

These are the opening lines of Fox. Look at the word placement. Clamped followed by big and then the beautiful word - gentle. We immediately know so much about Dog.

But Dog has his own problems. He is blind in one eye and Magpie, with her burnt wing, will never fly again. This pair of unlikely friends need to support each other. Dog waits for Magpie to heal and then he persuades her to climb on his back. He runs swiftly to the river "so swiftly it is almost as if he were flying."

"Fly Dog, fly! I will be your missing eye, and you will be my wings."

Now comes the complication. A fox arrives. Fox with his "haunted eyes".  "He flickers though the trees like a tongue of fire."

Again look at the word placement - flickers like fire - this fox is dangerous. Fox joins the pair of friends but Magpie sees him watching her. She smells his envy and rage and loneliness. Three times Fox whispers to Magpie trying to tempt her away. He promises he can truly make her fly. Magpie is tempted. She climbs on his back but Fox has a terrible plan. He runs far away and then stops and shakes Magpie off his back.

"Now you and Dog will know what it is like to be truly alone."

Magpie is tempted to just curl up and die but then she thinks of her special friend Dog and so "slowly, jiggety-hop, she begins the long journey home."

When Ron Brooks read the three pages of this text he replied to his publisher:

"I love it! I must do it. And it will be utterly unlike anything I’ve ever done, just you wait . . . I think it’s maybe the most powerful picture book text I’ve ever read. It is a great big, fat, juicy-great novel of wonderful writing—honed down to three gloriously transcendent pages! Amazing! Biblical! I am so grateful for the opportunity this affords me to really break some barriers, new ground."

Every single thing about this book is important and powerful and wonderful. This book is one of the best picture books ever created in Australia. Here are some excellent teachers notes. Here is a preview of the Story Box Library video of Fox.

I have two personal connections to this book. Many years ago I attended a book conference in Hobart, Tasmania. There was a session with Ron Brooks. It was held in a tiny room and only a handful of people attended. Ron was very late arriving as it was the daylight saving change over weekend and he had forgotten to change his clock.  We sat in this small room and waited. Ron arrived about an hour late full of apologies. Then he picked up Fox and read it to us. I cried through the whole book. A couple of years late a close friend of mine visited Ron. She asked him to sign my copy of Fox. Ron Brooks did so much more. He wrote me a special message which I treasure and included a drawing of Magpie.

Subtle, striking, this story of friendship and betrayal is a modern day fable that will remain an Australian children’s classic. Kids Book Review

With Fox, she brings a poet’s sensibility to the writing of a mesmerising and powerful work about the elemental need for companionship in our lives. Her writing bristles with urgent action and sings with suggestive imagery; it is pared back, sometimes playful, and always emotionally resonant. In this way, it carries the very essence of what the story is about – the arcane battle between innocence and evil, kindness and cruelty, love and hate. IBBY President Dr Robyn Sheahan-Bright