Reviews

Like most other reviewers, I have no idea how in the world Disney got a story of friendship from a story about a dog hunting a fox and a fox losing everything to outrun them.

Mannix does not fail with this timeless story about the thrill of the hunt or escaping it, and it only falters on points when we cannot insert ourself any farther into a wild animal’s narrative. Actions such as “giving tongue” or the baying of hunting dogs as indication of a trail aren’t given as clear of a meaning as I would’ve wanted, but the story is seamless and somehow doesn’t need your knowledge on such things to build.

The crescendo of this novel is what truly made me love it- the ending reads bittersweet, and I put down the book at last on my plane ride home with tears in my eyes. I truly appreciate what this book does as a story, and there’s not much more to be said about it.

unwound_spring's review against another edition

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adventurous informative reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

told through the eyes of the titular fox and hound, their brief narrative ends in an elegy for those supplanted by urbanization

dyfn's review against another edition

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4.0

I read it in grade school, and it stuck with me. The book is written from the perspective of both the fox and the hound, and was pretty well-done. In the latter part of the book, the world around them was changed by "Progress", again described through the animals' senses. I could relate to this story; I've foxhunted many years ago, and have since watched the foxhunters become old men and few, and seen the fields and woods sprout houses and stores full of city folk with no sense of the land they live on.

It won a children's book award, but be warned; there is death and hardship in it, and a child who doesn't understand the context will may questions about what is happening. For all that (and maybe because of that), it is a good read. It is also lamentably forgotten, thanks in part to the evil hand of Disney.

aotora's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

If you go into this book thinking that it's anything like Disney's version ... don't. Because this book is quite similar to Bambi in a sense that it's barely like the movie, besides having the same characters and a few elements here and there and it's much more realistic than Disney's version.

We still have Tod the fox and Copper the hound. They are never friends in this book though.

Tod is raised by humans after the hunters kill his mother and the rest of the litter - which is the first glimpse of brutally realistic nature of this book. When he matures he goes wild again and no longer trusts humans - we then follow his exploits as he evades hunters and their dogs and as he finds love again. He finds a vixen, has kits but first the kits are killed by the hunters and then the first vixen is too. He then has another litter and

they get killed too alongside the new vixen he mates with.

On one last hunt Tod is tired and alone. There are no other foxes left, he survived rabies and he

dies after running for a day and a half and he just drops dead from exhaustion.

after that you'd think that Copper would get the good ending too but nope,

when his master is moved to the retirement home he cannot take his dog with him so he gives him the Old Yeller treatment and he shoots him in the head whilst Copper trusts him and believes that they are going out for another hunt.

Man this book was dark and brutal ... but realistic and I loved it because of that. I loved the hunting scenes, I loved reading how the fox evaded hunters and learned more and more clever tricks and I enjoed the entire vibe of this book a lot. It's such a great short book, too bad it's really hard to get a physical copy. Oh well - maybe one day.

wafer's review against another edition

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5.0

A magnificent piece of xenofiction with superbly thrilling action scenes through its exhaustive descriptions of all manners of fox hunts, and all from the perspective of its realistically portrayed non-human participants. The writing is skillful and poignant, and the ending passage in particular is especially heart wrenching.

unicornrhyfedd's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

queenkath32's review against another edition

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adventurous tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No

5.0

I knew this was going to be darker than the Disney movie but DAMN I didn't think it would be THAT much darker. The two versions are so different from each other that it's more like a vague inspiration than an adaptation. In reading this, I liked the differences in how the Tod and Copper saw the world. The ways in which they behaved, and how they reacted to man-made things, as well as other animals around them. Their points of view were written in such a way that they seemed more like the animals that they are rather than true characters, the way some books do with animal characters.

Content Warnings

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