That's one Hard Fox! A Stone Fox!

Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner, 1980.

Immediate tension and simple language make a fast, easy read.

The plot always moves forward but generally without much elegance or plausibility. Many questions remained unanswered, the largest being, how could a ten-year-old care for an ailing grandfather on his own? Changing sheets? Bathing him? Bathroom duties? Perhaps because of the overly simplified language I had difficulty making an emotional connection with the protagonist. And the race, although very intense, seemed like a deus ex machina.

For the male (or female) sports-loving emergent reader, however, I could see this book being top pick.

Rebecca Grabill

Rebecca has been writing since childhood, her first book about a kitten published between homemade cardboard covers in second grade. Although she studied religion and philosophy in university, she continued writing, earning an MFA from Hamline University and publishing multiple picture books (no longer with homemade covers) and a collection of poetry with a variety of New York and independent publishers. She has also published a wide array of fiction, essays, and poetry in magazines and journals and photographs for Getty Images. She balances writing with homeschooling the younger of her six children, launching her young adults, church activities, and overseeing a small flock of chickens in rural West Michigan.

www.rebeccagrabill.com
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