From the Publisher
Satisfying yet bittersweet conclusion. Klassen’s interspersed scene-setting black-and-white art adds textured layers of complexity. This sensitively imagined story effectively explores issues of human-animal connection, emotional vulnerability, the aftermath of conflict, and found family.” — The Horn Book (starred review)
“This is a deftly nuanced look at the fragility and strength of the human heart. An impressive sequel." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“The book’s message is most simply put by Pax when he tells his kit that “after loving, you are afraid,” but it is still worth it. It’s a hard heart that will keep the tears away for this one, so have plenty of tissues nearby.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
“The stakes feel higher this time, the pain deeper, making for a worthy sequel and a heartbreaking and beautifully life-affirming exploration of the concepts of home, family, and the love that makes it all worthwhile.” — Booklist
“Pennypacker brilliantly walks this tightrope of evoking the power and pain of love. The end result is a story about healing and forgiveness: healing from war, from poisons in the environment, from pain and loss, from the ways people disappoint those they love.” — New York Journal of Books
The Horn Book (starred review)
Satisfying yet bittersweet conclusion. Klassen’s interspersed scene-setting black-and-white art adds textured layers of complexity. This sensitively imagined story effectively explores issues of human-animal connection, emotional vulnerability, the aftermath of conflict, and found family.
Booklist
The stakes feel higher this time, the pain deeper, making for a worthy sequel and a heartbreaking and beautifully life-affirming exploration of the concepts of home, family, and the love that makes it all worthwhile.
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
The book’s message is most simply put by Pax when he tells his kit that “after loving, you are afraid,” but it is still worth it. It’s a hard heart that will keep the tears away for this one, so have plenty of tissues nearby.
New York Journal of Books
Pennypacker brilliantly walks this tightrope of evoking the power and pain of love. The end result is a story about healing and forgiveness: healing from war, from poisons in the environment, from pain and loss, from the ways people disappoint those they love.
Booklist
The stakes feel higher this time, the pain deeper, making for a worthy sequel and a heartbreaking and beautifully life-affirming exploration of the concepts of home, family, and the love that makes it all worthwhile.
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
The book’s message is most simply put by Pax when he tells his kit that “after loving, you are afraid,” but it is still worth it. It’s a hard heart that will keep the tears away for this one, so have plenty of tissues nearby.
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
The book’s message is most simply put by Pax when he tells his kit that “after loving, you are afraid,” but it is still worth it. It’s a hard heart that will keep the tears away for this one, so have plenty of tissues nearby.
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2021-06-29
Boy and fox follow separate paths in postwar rebuilding.
A year after Peter finds refuge with former soldier Vola, he prepares to leave to return to his childhood home. He plans to join the Junior Water Warriors, young people repurposing the machines and structures of war to reclaim reservoirs and rivers poisoned in the conflict, and then to set out on his own to live apart from others. At 13, Peter is competent and self-contained. Vola marvels at the construction of the floor of the cabin he’s built on her land, but the losses he’s sustained have left a mark. He imposes a penance on himself, reimagining the story of rescuing the orphaned kit Pax as one in which he follows his father’s counsel to kill the animal before he could form a connection. He thinks of his heart as having a stone inside it. Pax, meanwhile, has fathered three kits who claim his attention and devotion. Alternating chapters from the fox’s point of view demonstrate Pax’s care for his family—his mate, Bristle; her brother; and the three kits. Pax becomes especially attached to his daughter, who accompanies him on a journey that intersects with Peter’s and allows Peter to not only redeem his past, but imagine a future. This is a deftly nuanced look at the fragility and strength of the human heart. All the human characters read as White. Illustrations not seen.
An impressive sequel. (Fiction. 10-14)
