A Book Review of The Fox and the Star

I recently borrowed the book The Fox and the Star by Coralie Bickford-Smith. I borrowed the ebook version from my library on Libby. The Fox and the Star is a children’s book about a fox who tries to find his friend, a star, after it disappears one night.

While I found the illustrations beautiful, and the writing decent, I was a little disappointed by the ending.

After Fox journeys beyond his part of the forest in search of Star, he comes to a clearing and finds more stars in the sky. However, he doesn’t find his friend.

Despite this, he is happy to see so many stars. Also, according to the book, “He knew that somewhere out there was a star that was his” (pg. 30).

The book simply ends like this; “Beneath the blazing sky of stars, Fox made his way through the forest.”

That was the end of the story.

At this point, I was left wondering what happened to the star. Did it die? Did it simply go elsewhere? What happened to it?

To me, the ending was abrupt. 

It’s possible the author wanted to deliver a message about not being afraid to leave your comfort zone. At the beginning of the story, Fox is too afraid to go outside his part of the forest. He has Star to light his path in the dark of night as he scavenges for beetles and chases rabbits. He relies on Star to guide him in the night. The story says that all his happiness was “bound to the flickering light of Star,” which I suppose could be interpreted as an unhealthy level of codependency (But that could be a bit of a stretch).

However, when Star vanishes, Fox is left in darkness. Fox is too afraid to venture from his den at first. But he eventually leaves his den to search for his friend.

The last sentence in the story could be meant to highlight that Fox is able to move on to explore and experience the world without being overly reliant on Star. Maybe the author’s intended messages were to not be overly reliant on others and to not be afraid to do things on your own.

However, if these were the intended messages of this story, I’m not sure the children it is targeted towards would immediately grasp those messages. Amazon’s product description for the book says the age range is two to six, but the Homegrown Reader suggests that the age range is three to eight.

Honestly, I still don’t understand what this story is supposed to be about after reading the last page. Fox never finds Star, and other than leaving his den and seeing other stars in the sky, nothing much happens.

I would have liked to know what happened to Star.

Did Star die? Or did it simply leave because it felt like Fox relied on it too much? Was it burnt out? Or did it simply leave for other reasons? Did it decide to ghost Fox for no particular reason at all? Was it bored?

While I enjoyed the illustrations and found the story intriguing, I feel like part of this story is missing. The ending sort of feels like a cliffhanger. 

If there was ever a part two for this book, I would want to know what happened to Star and if it ever reunited with Fox. I think it would be interesting to see things from Star’s perspective.

In summary, the book was a pleasure to read up until the end. The ending left me a little confused and very much unsatisfied. The illustrations are good, but the story lacked substance. It left me with the feeling one gets when you buy a bag of chips only to open it and find that most of the contents is just air.