Blue Wolf Reviews

Tag: fox

  • Foxlight

    Foxlight

    Katya Balen has taken storytelling to a new level with this, her fourth novel, Foxlight. The language invokes the senses quite intensely. We feel the cold and the frost, we smell the “Mouse Soup,” and we feel the warmth generated when the twins curl up to sleep at night.

    The setting for the story is the Light House, a home on the edge of the marshes where babies are brought who can’t be kept. Lissa was out looking for babies one night when she found the twins. They were curled up together wrapped around a fox’s tail, she said.

    The story is told by Fen, one of the twins. Her sister is Rey…. fox’s names, says Lissa, because that’s where they were found. All the kids in the house have a story and a mother and write a note each Sunday to their family.

    Rey and Fen draw pictures and blend with each other. They are quite different though. Rey loves to find seeds and plant them, tending the soil, while Fen always has her eyes on the horizon to the wildlands.

    They are sure their mother will find them. Then one night, a fox sits under their bedroom window. Fen watches her sister and sees “all her thoughts come loose and spill into the space between us.”

    The girls are sure this is a sign from their mother or at least a way to discover more about her. They decide to leave the haven of the Light House and follow the fox into the wildlands.

    While containing elements of adventure, danger and survival, the connecting theme of sibling love and courage, draws the two to realise how the Light House was their home. The story moves smoothly and quickly with brief and lyrical language.

  • A First Book of Bush Sounds

    A First Book of Bush Sounds

    Beginning with the Koala, a well-known Australian marsupial and therefor a terrific bush creature to begin A First Book of Bush Sounds, Fred van Gessel sets out information about the Koala, its habitat, diet, looks, apart from cute, its lifestyle and most importantly the sound it makes, heard by pushing a button on the page.

    Brushtail Possums, Dingoes, Red Foxes, while not indigenous are recorded, House Geckos, yes, they do make a particular sound, and the rather unusually named Brush Thick-knee, a bird of tropical areas that is a ground bird and loves shoreline habitat, to name a d few of the creatures who share their sounds with you. Each animal or bird has just enough information to be informative and entice an interested reader to investigate further.

    Each one of the selected bush creatures has been identified well in language suitable for young readers who want to understand a little more about the native wildlife that surrounds them. The pictures that illustrate the specific animal or bird are accurate, their scientific name is listed under their ‘common’ names with the sounds recorded, often very surprising.

    Koalas growl, Geckos, chuck-chuck-chuck, field crickets chirrup their ‘songs’, something heard often during the long hot summer days. The Southern Boobook Owl can sound like a frog with its distinctive boo-book sound; perhaps that where is common name came from, or a mo-poke call repeated many times. It also has a third call, that of a frog, while the youngsters can sound like a trilling of a cricket. I wonder why?

    Well-presented and filled with just enough detail to interest the beginning naturalist or reader with an interest in scientific things, A First Book of Bush Sounds is fabulous way of introducing a number of the bush creatures to a wide range of ages and reading abilities.