Little Foxes

By Michael Morpurgo

Book Overview

A spellbinding animal story from War Horse author and former Children's Laureate, Michael Morpurgo.

Bullied at school, nagged in Aunty May's tenth-floor council flat, there's only one place ten-year-old Billy really feels alive - in the wilderness by the canal. There he watches a cygnet on the water and protects a family of fox cubs. Then his secret place is discovered and the fox family decimated. Unwanted and unloved, Billy and the last fox run for their lives ...

A gripping and poignant animal adventure from the master storyteller of An Eagle in the Snow, Listen to the Moon, Shadow, and An Elephant in the Garden.

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Former Children's Laureate Michael Morpurgo needs no introduction. He is one of the most successful children's authors in the country, loved by children, teachers and parents alike. Michael has written more than forty books for children including the global hit War Horse, which was made into a Hollywood film by Steven Spielberg in 2011.

Several of his other stories have been adapted for screen and stage, including My Friend Walter, Why the Whales Came and Kensuke's Kingdom. Michael has won the Whitbread Award, the Smarties Award, the Circle of Gold Award, the Children's Book Award and has been short-listed for the Carnegie Medal four times.

He started the charity Farms for City Children in 1976 with his wife, Clare, aimed at relieving the "poverty of experience... many young children feel in inner city and urban areas. Michael is also a patron of over a dozen other charities. Living in Devon, listening to Mozart and working with children have provided Michael with the ideas and incentive to write his stories. He spends half his life mucking out sheds with the children, feeding sheep or milking cows; the other half he spends dreaming up and writing stories for children. "For me, the greater part of writing is daydreaming, dreaming the dream of my story until it hatches out - the writing down of it I always find hard. But I love finishing it, then holding the book in my hand and sharing my dream with my readers." Michael received an OBE in December 2006 for his services to literature.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1405233397
• ISBN13: 9781405233392
• Release Date: June 2017
• Publisher: Egmont UK Ltd
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.42 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.1" x 7.8"
• Age Range: 7 to 9 years
• Grade Range: Grades 2 to 4

Customer Reviews

Lovely Novel for Animal Lovers

Abandoned at birth, ten-year-old Billy Bunch has never had it easy. He's gone from orphanage to foster home, all to end up with Aunty May, in her tenth-floor council flat, and to be bullied by bigger kids at school. The only place where Billy feels loved, and truly at home and peace is in the wilderness by the canal. There, Billy finds a lovely water cygnet, and helps her to escape teenage tormentors; as well as a family of foxes, whom he tries to protect from danger. However, when the Mother is hit by a car, and three of the cubs are killed, Billy decides that he must run away with the last remaining cub, in order to protect him from death by man. As an animal lover, I have read many books involving children and teenagers who love and protect animals, and LITTLE FOXES is on my list of the absolute best. Michael Morpurgo has created a wonderful story that tugs at your heartstrings, and will have the reader sympathizing both with Billy, and the last remaining fox cub. Not only is the story a work of wonderful fiction, but it also shows the reader some realities, including how hard it is to be a defenseless animal, as well as the horrors of being hunted by man. Overall, this is a wonderful new animal story for all ages that shows the bond between a young boy and the only friend he's ever had, a fox. Erika Sorocco Book Review Columnist for The Community Bugle Newspaper