Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Bloomsbury Publishing (2018), 64 pages
Description
Idealistic Fox 8's ability to communicate in "Yuman" cannot save his pack when their den and food supply are destroyed to build a mall, so he writes a letter asking for an explanation of human's cruelty.
User reviews
LibraryThing member deeEhmm
A super short buk and I feel slite lee gilty inkluding it to help fill up my list for the yeer but also it wos very gud. Like O wow, funy! And sad. And troo. Like yea Yumans be nise.
LibraryThing member ecataldi
I don't know what I was expecting, but I will admit, I picked up this book because it was small and it was beautiful Fox 8 is a dark short story about an endearing fox who is enamored by humans. He sits outside of a house night after night listening to the mother read to her children and over time
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Fox 8 learns how to speak like a "Yuman" and read. He puts his newfound skills to use for his pack to discover what is going on to their forest. Land is being clear and there are more trucks and white boxes every day. Soon their environment is gone and they are starving. Fox 8 is not so impressed with the yumans now. A chilling tale from a cute wolfs perspective on humans screwing up the environment. Show Less
LibraryThing member jphamilton
Publishers don't always know how to classify books such as this. It's a fable, it's tiny in format and page count, it's illustrated with simple line drawings. Do you categorize it as a novella, a children's book, a gift book, or something for the YA section? Since I don't have to shelve it in a
George is not hiding his concerns about how our culture mostly values capitalism over the environment, and all the other life forms we "share" the planet with. Right before I read this brief book, I was reading a review of the new tamer animated Watership Down. This book also shows cruelty and death caused by the hands of uncaring humans.
It is generally a gentle story, told from the viewpoint of one fox, Fox 8, to be exacting. But, in the beginning, men on huge machines show up and destroy the habitat of a group of foxes (take your pick — a skulk or a leash of foxes) and create a mall. The foxes are slowly starving to death because of this destruction. Fox 8 decides to enter the ominous mall and check out the food court within. Eventually, he escapes, but through another set of doors and can never find his own burrow again. Much more happens, but this short little book takes no time to read, and check it out yourself.
My only complaint about the book, is also something that showcases it unique approach, the author tell the story using the English that Fox 8 has picked up while listening to a family being read to each night. He sits just outside the bedroom window, picks up the words solely as they sound, and even learns to read some of the printed words. My complaint is the same as I have at most books written in a different dialect, they just kind of bug me. It doesn't matter if it a foreign language, or a thick regional accent, or a book written by a fox. In spite of that, I enjoyed reading the book aloud — though it was a challenge to read it quickly on the fly, translating as I moved along.
It's not everyday you can read a story written by a fox.
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bookstore, I don't care or feel it important. It was quite enjoyable.George is not hiding his concerns about how our culture mostly values capitalism over the environment, and all the other life forms we "share" the planet with. Right before I read this brief book, I was reading a review of the new tamer animated Watership Down. This book also shows cruelty and death caused by the hands of uncaring humans.
It is generally a gentle story, told from the viewpoint of one fox, Fox 8, to be exacting. But, in the beginning, men on huge machines show up and destroy the habitat of a group of foxes (take your pick — a skulk or a leash of foxes) and create a mall. The foxes are slowly starving to death because of this destruction. Fox 8 decides to enter the ominous mall and check out the food court within. Eventually, he escapes, but through another set of doors and can never find his own burrow again. Much more happens, but this short little book takes no time to read, and check it out yourself.
My only complaint about the book, is also something that showcases it unique approach, the author tell the story using the English that Fox 8 has picked up while listening to a family being read to each night. He sits just outside the bedroom window, picks up the words solely as they sound, and even learns to read some of the printed words. My complaint is the same as I have at most books written in a different dialect, they just kind of bug me. It doesn't matter if it a foreign language, or a thick regional accent, or a book written by a fox. In spite of that, I enjoyed reading the book aloud — though it was a challenge to read it quickly on the fly, translating as I moved along.
It's not everyday you can read a story written by a fox.
Show Less
LibraryThing member lisapeet
A tiny little fable about wildlife in the big world. You have to be in the mood for dialect—it's written in fox-speak—and you have to be in the mood for Saunders' slightly dark whimsy. Otherwise it ain't gonna work. But I was open for it, plus the whole thing is about 50 pages, so I liked it.
LibraryThing member RandyMetcalfe
Fox 8 is a learner. He learns English by peering in the window of the nearby Yuman (i.e. human) dwelling, listening to their conversations, seeing what they see on television, and trying to sound out the words. His spelling is not so good. But his insight into Yuman behaviour is a benefit to his
A lovely story in which Saunders captures the voice of Fox 8 so completely, you too may feel the shame that Fox 8 hopes Yumans will on account of their actions.
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den, or would be if they hadn’t mostly all been killed during the construction of FoxViewCommons, a huge shopping mall and parking lot. There’s just no living with these Yumans. There’s only being killed, starved, or beaten to death (which is also being killed). So Fox 8 heads out in search of a bit of forest uncontaminated by Yumans. And finds it. But it’s hard living with what he’s seen. To help deal with his trauma, Fox 8 pens this story (not really “pens” because he’s a fox; so he used a typewriter instead) to let Yumans know what they have done and hope he can move them to feel some shame and act better in future. Wishful thinking.A lovely story in which Saunders captures the voice of Fox 8 so completely, you too may feel the shame that Fox 8 hopes Yumans will on account of their actions.
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LibraryThing member Narshkite
As sad and sweet and lovely as can be. Few write loss or eternal love as well as Saunders. Just perfect.
LibraryThing member sweetiegherkin
Fox 8 is a day-dreaming, story-loving fox who learns to speak "Yuman" by listening to parents reading bedtime stories to their children. But when a new shopping center threatens the habitat and livelihood of Fox 8's group, can he address humankind to help?
This short story is interesting in concept,
The illustrations are basic but cute.
This short story is interesting in concept,
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as it's told from the point of a view of a fox. I found the fox's lack of proper spelling a little more tedious than clever over time though; luckily this is just a short story for a full novel of that would be too much. And while I liked the message about humans needing to respect nature more and over-development being a huge problem, it feels like preaching to the choir. Anyone reading Saunders probably already agrees; those who disagree (or are somehow ignorant of the world around them) aren't picking this up.The illustrations are basic but cute.
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LibraryThing member lydia1879
This was such a cool short story!
I listened to it this morning, which I think is a really good way to experience it. From what I can tell, a lot of the language in it is a little bit more difficult, the spelling is consistently inconsistent, because this short story features a little fox trying to
I really enjoyed the narrative. It's a bizarre little story and I loved that Fox 8's voice was so strange that it became recognisable.
I don't really want to go into it too much more but if you're looking for a strange and wonderful little short story, this might be the one for you. c:
I listened to it this morning, which I think is a really good way to experience it. From what I can tell, a lot of the language in it is a little bit more difficult, the spelling is consistently inconsistent, because this short story features a little fox trying to
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learn to speak human.I really enjoyed the narrative. It's a bizarre little story and I loved that Fox 8's voice was so strange that it became recognisable.
I don't really want to go into it too much more but if you're looking for a strange and wonderful little short story, this might be the one for you. c:
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LibraryThing member bookworm12
A sweet short story about a dreamy fox. He has learned how to speak and write the “yuman” language. He spells everything phonetically. He encounters both kindness and cruelty in the book.
LibraryThing member ThomasPluck
I like Saunders and I like foxes. I wanted to love this but could only like it. Partly I'm jealous that he could publish something so whimsical as a Spicoli fox learning Youman speech and reenacting Watership Down for vulpines. And I laughed his take on fox thought and the misspellings, especially
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"berd" which always tickles me for whatever reason. It's a cute funny read with matching illustrations, a one sitting read that might make you smile. That's not so bad. Show Less
LibraryThing member larryking1
What an enchanting little jewel of a book! A few years ago, I read through George Saunders' novel, Lincoln in the Bardo (such a strange book, set in a cemetery as Abe Lincoln and his son are pulled back and forth in a dark netherworld), but I was unprepared to be so charmed by this tiny novella.
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Our protagonist, a little fox, teaches himself English by listening underneath the window of a family whose parents tell their children bedtime stories. He also peruses the letters on the spines of their bookshelves and makes the connection. Voila! We have a literate fox! Sadly, there are major plans afoot in the area around our hero and his merry band of fellow fox denizens. Or, as he would write, "Soon we are standing before a sine, and upon that sine are some Yuman letters like the ones I had been lerning...I cud reed it...'Coming soon, FoxViewCommons." Yes, a mall ('mawl') is plopped down right over the world where our fox families reside! "Those werds caused many suden questions in all our branes." I will leave it at that, but I will put it this way: you will not see me wearing fox fur scarves or fox fur trousers when we cross paths again! Show Less
LibraryThing member bragan
Like a lot of George Saunders' stuff, this small volume seems harder to describe than it feels like it should be. Let's say that it's a talking-animal fable for adults. It starts out cute and kind of funny; gets sad in complicated, unresolved ways that you don't see in ordinary fairy tales; then
Of course, George Saunders, being George Saunders, makes this work, in his own strange kind of way.
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ends on a moral and a pointed question for human readers that are, on one hand, as simple as they can possibly be, and on the other, as complicated as human nature and human civilization.Of course, George Saunders, being George Saunders, makes this work, in his own strange kind of way.
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LibraryThing member rynk
Just before the deer disappear, they stop in view of the subdivision sales office long enough to help agents close their deals. Humorist George Saunders turns this outskirts irony into a modern fable in which a curious fox lingers outside the new homes after dark, listening to bedtime stories and
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learning Yuman, even enough to read the billboard, "Coming soon, FoxView Commons." This fox is ready for his media closeup, leading a skulk of shopping mall interlopers. This is a dangerous game, but of course this fable has a happy ending, and a moral. The author reads the audiobook in a non-native speaking cadence, capturing some of the malaprops that play more comically in print. Show Less
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2013
Physical description
64 p.; 7.87 inches
ISBN
1526606488 / 9781526606488
Local notes
Fox 8 has always been curious, and a bit of a daydreamer. And, by hiding outside houses at dusk and listening to children's bedtime stories, he has learned to speak 'Yuman'. The power of words and the stories built from them is intoxicating for a fox with a poetic soul, but there is 'danjur' on the horizon: a new shopping mall is being built, cutting off his pack's food supply. To save himself and his fellow foxes, Fox 8 will have to set out on a harrowing quest from the wilds of nature deep into the dark heart of suburbia.
Signed by the author.
Signed by the author.