Reviews

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy

hevthemystic's review

adventurous hopeful inspiring fast-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

3.75

juste's review against another edition

5.0

Phenomenal

leahthebooklover's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

This is a profound philosophy book masquerading as a children's book. It's a deceptively simple story about a boy trying to find his way home. He encounters a mole and they become friends, even though the mole is a little fixated on cake. Then they meet a fox, who is at first angry and frightening, but only because he is hurt and frightened. Eventually he becomes a quiet and thoughtful new friend. The last character to enter the story is the horse, who is big, and gentle, and has a wonderful secret. Each of these four friends has wisdom to share with each other, about kindness, love, courage, freedom, worthiness, friendship, perseverance, and more. The illustrations are mainly black and white (looks like ink) drawings, slightly messy in style. Occasionally a page has a more detailed drawing, colored with a muted watercolor wash. The text is also a slightly messy pen and ink cursive, so this is not a book that can easily be read by a young reader, but rather one that a parent or trusted adult will read to them, and it can hopefully open a door to some beautiful, heartfelt conversations between the reader and the read to. I highly recommend this "new classic". It would make a great gift.

camicat42's review against another edition

5.0

"Don't measure how valuable you are by the way you are treated."

Nice little book to end the year with.

goblin_w_ksiazkach's review against another edition

lighthearted reflective fast-paced

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

2.0

northcoraline's review against another edition

5.0

This felt like a warm hug and a loving pat on my heart.

shawnapantzke's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

vverbatim7's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

kathrynjean97's review against another edition

2.0

A collection of simple musings disjointedly expressed as a linear story. While I understand the sentiment, each page is jarringly disconnected from the next, and with the (beautiful but) borderline-illegible-at-times calligraphy, it's difficult to read and hence no one musing stood out to me. Perhaps I will find more value if I leave it on my coffee table and flick to a random page when I need to hear some words of wisdom; but even then, the words are only profound so long as they are not life lessons you already understand.

I would liken this to the pocket-sized motivational books you find in op shops and the sale rack of your local book store, the ones that paste photos of kittens or landscapes or what-have-you alongside generic sayings, so beloved by the 'Live Laugh Love'-ers. Except that Mackesy presents these sayings as a question and answer, which could be refreshing, if not every page contained the words "said the ___."

I will say that the artistry is very beautiful, and the musings probably need to be heard by some people, but they were best left as individual pieces on Mackesy's Instagram page.

taymckea's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0