The Fox and the Star

February 15, 2016
Grades 2-5 This warm fable follows a forest-dwelling fox who loves the familiar star who always lights his way. On pages decorated with William Morrisstyle motifs and flat blocks of color, Bickford-Smith cultivates a serene atmosphere, both in the spare text and meticulous artwork. Curlicues of ferns arc around one another, leaving rabbit shapes in the negative spacea hint of the fox's prey. After the fox awakes to find his star missing, Bickford-Smith swaps the crisp white highlights of the opening scenes for dun gray, evoking a more somber mood. When the fox finds a secret messagewords carefully laid out in a blanket of strewn leavesthe next page reveals a resplendent spread of midnight blue spangled with hundreds of stars. Not only has Fox found his friend, he has found many more. It's an unusual, pleasantly old-fashioned volume that doesn't quite seem right at home among the picture-book or graphic-novel sections, but thanks to the gorgeous production value and moving illustrations, readers won't mind where it's shelved, as long as they can find it.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)