Beatrix Potter Has Never Been More Terrifying [MG Review]

Posted 19 November 2019 in review /2 Comments

Scary Stories for Young Foxes by Christian McKay Heidicker

Illustrator: Junyi Wu
Format/source: Hardcover/Library
Published: July 2019
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
Length: 320 pages
Genre: Horror
Target Age: Middle grade (suitable for 10+)
#OwnVoices: No (protagonist born with a shortened foreleg)
Content Warnings: Abusive father, abusive siblings, animal deaths
★★★★

The haunted season has arrived in the Antler Wood. No fox kit is safe. When Mia and Uly are separated from their litters, they discover a dangerous world full of monsters. In order to find a den to call home, they must venture through field and forest, facing unspeakable things that dwell in the darkness: a zombie who hungers for their flesh, a witch who tries to steal their skins, a ghost who hunts them through the snow . . . and other things too scary to mention. Featuring eight interconnected stories and sixteen illustrations.

Review

I read Scary Stories for Young Foxes over two days in late October. As an autumn read, the book delighted me. The stories offer some properly frightening, chills inducing scenes. If I described each story individually, they might sound like monster-of-the-week. But the progression of Mia and Uly’s journeys keeps them more interesting than that. Each ‘monster’ frightens in its own distinct way. As the title of this post alludes, a Beatrix Potter who pursues taxidermy becomes a horrendous figure when seen through the eyes of a captured kit… (The story in which she features contains what I found to be the most morbid scenes in the book – the gutting of a rabbit Mia had been conversing with [pg. 98].) Some scenes become particularly creepy if you imagine the story was about people and not ‘just’ foxes, such as Mr. Scratch with his kingdom and his wives.

The ‘scary stories’ interconnect more than I expected. The first two stories read well enough as stand-alones. They’re the first part of a continuous narrative. They explain how two kits, Mia (whose siblings turn rabid) and Uly (the runt of a litter of cruel sisters), end up on their own. The eight stories alternate between Mia and Uly’s experiences, until the two connect. The framing device of seven kits listening to an old storyteller share terrifying tales on a “chilled autumn night” serves more to build suspense than link the stories together (as the stories chronologically continue from one another on their own). But that changes towards the end of the book, as the framing narrative becomes part of the conclusion to Mia and Uly’s story.

The Bottom Line

A wonderfully scary middle grade book (with perfectly matched illustrations). Part of the book takes place in winter, so it would work just as well for a haunting read in the dead of that season. I’ll place Scary Stories for Young Foxes next to Coraline and Spirit Hunters on my bookshelf.

I’ll leave you now with the wonderfully put together book trailer, featuring shadow puppets by the book’s illustrator Junyi Wu.