A middle-grade novel exploring the effects of war and the bonds of love between pets and humans is getting media attention.

Pax by Sara Pennypacker, illustrated by Jon Klassen (Harper/Balzer + Bray; OverDrive Sample) is about a twelve-year-old boy who has a pet fox named Pax. Separated by war, the two seek to find each other again, each telling their part of the story.

Pennypacker was on NPR’s All Things Considered yesterday and today her book rose to #10 spot on Amazon’s sales ranking. UPDATE: The book debuts at #2 on the 2/21 NYT Children’s Middle Grade Hardcover Best Sellers list.

During the conversation she describes how smart foxes are (they can communicate with other species) and her take how children see the world, saying:

“I wanted to … celebrate this extraordinary sense of no boundaries — it’s kind of a boundary issue where kids don’t realize there are boundaries and I love that! They’re right, they’re correct! Why can’t they love an animal, a wild animal or a pet? Why can’t they? … Humans sort of get narrow as they age and I think the older we get, the less we’re able to see we can have real relationships with more of life.”

The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal have devoted attention to it as well. The novel received starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and SLJ.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 11th, 2016 at 3:30 pm and is filed under 2015/16 -- Winter/Spring, Childrens and YA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.