Foxlight
Katya Balen
Foxlight
Katya Balen
Winner of the 2024 Wainwright Prize for Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation
Fen and Rey were found curled up small and tight in the fiery fur of the foxes at the very edge of the wildlands. Fen is loud and fierce and free. She feels a connection to foxes and a calling from the wild that she's desperate to return to. Rey is quiet and shy and an expert on nature. She reads about the birds, feeds the lands and nurtures the world around her.
They are twin sisters. Different and the same. Separate and connected. They will always have each other, even if they don't have a mother and don't know their beginning. But they do want answers. Answers to who their mother is and where she might be. What their story is and how it began. So when a fox appears late one night at the house, Fen and Rey see it as a sign - it's here to lead them to their truth, find their real family and fill the missing piece they have felt since they were born.
But the wildlands are exactly that - wild. They are wicked and cruel and brutal and this journey will be harder and more life changing than either Fen or Rey ever imagined ...
Review
Katherine Dretzke
Foxlight – the moment when twilight meets the dawn – is a quiet time just before the birds start their morning song and the sun begins to warm the earth. It was at this time that twin babies Fen and Rey, along with a piece of paper with a drawing of a fox, were found by Lissa, a woman who runs the Light House: a place for children whose mothers are unable to look after them.
Unlike the other kids who have contact with their mothers, Fen and Rey are alone – until a fox visits their garden. With wildness in their hearts and questions in their minds, Fen and Rey decide to leave in the dead of night to follow the fox into the wildlands that surround their home, hoping to find their mother.
Award-winning author Katya Balen cleverly explores the idea of self-discovery while also tackling the topics of bravery, sisterhood, and what the word ‘family’ really means in this lovely, earthy novel. Foxlight will delight kids who love nature, the wildness of animals, and the beauty and savagery of the natural world. It would also make a great bookclub or classroom novel for middle grade readers. For ages 9+
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