Finding Foxes - Hardcover

In spite of Blake's striking gouache paintings of foxes in the countryside, this picture book lacks coherence and is bound to confuse young readers. After seven short descriptions of the fox as it moves from a "circle of sunlight" to being "cruelly red, / in a knife of sun" as it kills a rabbit, the poet abruptly announces, "the fox / knows / what is real, / imagined." While Blyler's imagery is sometimes apt, her attempt to "weave an imagination of foxes" is as perplexing as her sudden, unsatisfying conclusion: "I do not know / the ways of / the fox. / I ask / the river." The ideas are incomplete and the point of view and verb tenses shift inexplicably. Although Blake does the best he can with abstruse lines like "If I imitate / the fox, / I cannot / change him," he sometimes simply goes his own way--as when the "green fox" Blyler describes is painted reddish brown. By including hidden foxes in the pictures, Blake attempts to make the book more interesting, but the problems inherent in the murky text are impossible to overcome. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

PreSchool-K--Finding Foxes may be full of hidden visual and textual clues, but its puzzles are too obscure to engage readers in the search. Blyler's prose poem details the activities and musings of a fox, who is the focus of every illustration, while others lurk in the background and shadows of the impressionistic natural scenes. The writing, said to have been inspired by haiku, lacks the succinctness of the form, and instead sounds vague and affected--"If I imitate the fox, I cannot change him." It seems a bit obtuse for a picture book. Blake's gouache landscapes are painterly and quite lovely but, like the words, lack any real direction and are static, without the animation one would associate with the movements of a fox. Tejima's Fox's Dream (Philomel, 1987) or Sven Nordqvist's Fox Hunt (Morrow, 1988) are preferable; good nonfiction includes On the Trail of the Fox (Carolrhoda, 1986) by Claudia Schnieper and Fancy the Fox (Random, 1988) by Jane Burton. --Christine A. Moesch, Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, Buffalo, NY
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.