Young farm-girl Christine rescues a fox cub injured and orphaned by the hunt in this brief chapter-book from acclaimed British children's author Michael Morpurgo. Determined to nurse her new vulpine friend back to health, despite her father's hatred of all foxes, Christine hides Larry, as she has named the cub, in an old fishing hut, and sneaks him food at every opportunity. Slowly, as Winter passes, Larry grows in strength, and when the Spring comes, Christine knows she must free her new friend. But is it as simple as that? Tragedy lies in store, as Larry returns to the home of his human friend...

I wasn't sure what to expect, going in to Fox Friend. The only other Morpurgo title I had read is War Horse, which depicts the brutality of war, and the agonies of both human and equine suffering, but which also ends on a hopeful note. Here, however, the book ends abruptly with the shooting of Larry by Christine's father, and his admonition to her not to cry. This is a painful conclusion, as it was obviously meant to be, and it leaves the reader with many questions. Was Larry returning to hunt hens, as Christine's father believed, or (as is more likely) was he simply comfortable and confident in that area, because he believed he was near his friend Christine? I myself was left with the impression that Larry had been doubly betrayed by humanity: in being hunted in the first place (although not opposed to subsistence hunting, I think sport hunting the reserve of the morally deranged), and then in being killed, when his experiences with Christine led him to believe that he would be safe near her. This tale reminded my strongly of that beautiful and brilliant fox, Curoo, in Pat O'Shea's The Hounds of the Morrigan, who commented that it was not an easy thing to share the world with man!

There is truth to Morpurgo's ending, both in that it captures the realities of farm life - yes, foxes often are shot and killed - and in that it addresses the often tragic nature of human-animal interaction, but I finished the book with qualms about its suitability for the younger children who normally read beginning chapter-books. I would have been devastated by this story as a girl, and although I am by no means maintaining that this makes it unsuitable - after all, I went through a phase in which I obsessively read Holocaust memoirs as a young adolescent - I know it would have haunted me for years afterward. Investigating a bit online, I see that the publisher here, Barrington Stokes, specializes in what we call "Hi-Lo" books in the states: books with a mature (or high) interest level, but a low reading level, which are intended for older children with Dyslexia, who are reading well below their expected level. That makes more sense to me, as I think older children will be better equipped to deal with the trauma of that abrupt and violent ending. ( )