Review: Fantastic Mr. Fox

Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I like Dahl's fox family okay, but prefer his stories with human protagonists..

***

I'm reading Wild Things: The Joy of Reading Children's Literature as an Adult and just finished the chapter on Beatrix Potter and books using animals in place of people. Rabbits, badger, and foxes are all pretty prominent. So it was time for a reread.

I liked it better this time around: I admire the Fox resistance, I delight in the ending. Dahl is rather alarmingly judgemental about people and their personal appearance, which is lazy and odd: as if appearance should speak louder than acts. But besides that, I can't really care for the humans who are rather terrible monsters.

Long live the new borrower world order!

Library copy

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