The Fox WishReview posted July 6, 2017.
Chronicle Books, 2017. Originally published in Japan in 2003. 32 pages.
Starred Review 2017 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #5 Picture Books
This book charmed, surprised, and enchanted me.
The book starts in the middle of the action, well, in the middle of a snack. We see a little blonde girl and her younger brother, and she’s got big surprised eyes. She left her jump rope at the park!
She goes to get it, and Lukie comes along. But when they get to the park, the jump rope isn’t there. But they hear laughter in the trees. They go to investigate.
The laughs were louder now, and I could hear it:
the swish, whip of the jump rope.
But it wasn’t Thomas and Samantha jump-roping.
It was foxes.
“Doxy, foxy,
touch the ground.
Doxy, foxy,
turn around.
Turn to the east,
and turn to the west,
and choose the one that
you like best.”
The spread shows the children looking out from behind some trees at a line of foxes jumping rope. Two are turning the rope, one is watching, and seven foxes are joyfully jumping, in various poses in the air.
The foxes were not very good at jump rope.
They were good jumpers, but their tails kept getting caught in the rope.
Lukie can’t help but laugh. So then they come out and join the foxes. The foxes politely ask them how to jump rope without tripping, and Roxie is glad to explain that they simply need to hold their tails up.
They all have a lovely time jumping rope together until it starts to get dark. When it’s Roxie’s time to turn the rope, she sees that the rope indeed has her name on the handle.
But when it’s time to go home, there’s a surprise. This is the part where I was utterly charmed. I don’t want to give it away, so let me just say that it’s delightful to watch wishes come true.
I love this book. The illustrations (Those fox faces! The joyful jumping!) are a big part of that. But also the story of a little girl who learns to give joy to others.