The Story: It is spring. Little Fox and Daddy Fox are going for a walk and along the way they come across a variety of animals, insects and birds who are nest building, spring cleaning and tidying. Daddy Fox answers Little Fox’s questions about the animals’ homes and explains why they aren’t suitable for foxes. By the end of the day Daddy Fox and Little Fox have dug the perfect den for two foxes to snuggle up in.
A New Home for Little Fox is a lovely story to introduce children to the homes of different animals, insects and birds. Daddy Fox and Little Fox look at the homes of finches, squirrels, butterflies, fish, moles, mice and rabbits. My daughter now knows that foxes live in a den and although rabbit holes are mentioned in the text we also talked about burrows and hutches which introduced her to new vocabulary. There’s a lot of dialogue in the text and I love the jokey banter between the two foxes. Rosalind Beardshaw’s animals are very cute and she has used lovely muted colours for the landscapes – predominantly blue and green. The deepening blue of the sky shows the progression of the day and my daughter loves running her fingers over the shiny gold stars in the final spread. The two foxes have a close relationship full of hugs and giggles and Little Fox romps through the book with boundless enthusiasm. They have big smiles on their faces in keeping with the fun that they have together, they are such loveable characters that children can easily identify with.
The theme in A New Home for Little Fox is really relevant to spring, we’ve been reading it for a few weeks in the hopes that spring will come soon!
Age Range: 2 +
Author: Janet Bingham / Illustrator: Rosalind Beardshaw
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