Fox in the Dark by Alison Green, illustrated by Deborah Allwright

I don't know why this sweet story feels so winterish to me; the illustrations show fallen leaves and a glowing dark night sky, but it just feels like winter. So, I'm posting this review in the winter.

A rabbit flees desperately through the woods, "chased by a fox in the dark." No sooner has he safely reached home and locked himself in...when a terrified duck, also escaping from the fox arrives. Then a mouse, then a lamb...the bed is getting crowded and Rabbit is getting annoyed, when there's one more knock at the door.

It's the FOX! The animals are ready to run again, but Fox begs for their help - he's lost his mom out in the dark! They've barely calmed down when Fox Cub's mother appears - and she's much bigger and scarier! But she turns out to be nice and just worried about her fox cub, so they all settle down together and discover that Mommy Fox makes a warm and fluffy bed.

The rhyming text has lots of words that pop out at the listener, bang, click, thunk, scritch, and a nice repeating refrain of knocking at the door. The rhyme swings along easily with the "fox in the dark" repeated frequently enough for kids to join in.

What I really, really loved were the pictures. They glow with color and light, despite the whole story taking place at night. Smaller inset illustration shine out of the dark night and the foxes' coats are brilliant, looking so soft and strokable! The layout of the story is superb, moving from full spread illustrations to smaller insets showing the crowding in Rabbit's burrow, then the sudden shock of the fox's face.

Verdict: A great choice for storytimes about foxes, rabbits, bedtime, being lost, and autumn (or winter). Highly recommended.

ISBN: 978-1-58925-091-8; Published September 2010 by Tiger Tales; Borrowed from the library