They don't ask him to do many chores, so Tom has a surplus of time to explore the woods, and he's glad of that when he crosses paths with the black fox. Tom settles in quickly with Aunt Millie (who is actually his cousin) and Uncle Fred, as well as their teenage daughter Hazeline. Not wanting to ruin their vacation, Tom pretends he's looking forward to being stuck on a farm for most of summer, but in truth he doesn't see how he could possibly enjoy the upcoming months.

Tom's parents are going on a bike trip through Europe, and need to be sure he's safe back in the states so they can enjoy themselves.

He and his friend Petie Burkis are never short on creative ideas for how to spend their free time, but Tom's summer derails before it starts when his parents inform him he'll be spending the next two months at his Aunt Millie and Uncle Fred's farm. Nine-year-old Tom is looking forward to summer vacation from school. The 1970s and '80s were arguably the prime of Betsy Byars's career, but she produced many good books outside of that period, including The Midnight Fox in 1968.

A previous fox wasn't so lucky and there are some horrible descriptions of what happens to these poor creatures and their babies.Īpart from the cruelty and the attitude towards weight the rest of the story is wonderful. Tommy sees a black fox, it is not long before the dad has dug out the baby with a spade and put it in a cage in the hope it's poor mother will come to rescue it whilst the is able to. He scoops them out with a spoon, they laugh at this and how the threat of the fact you might have the bushbaby spoon is used to stop Hazeline's overeating. The dad finds it amusing that there are babies in it's pouch. The animal killing was brutal, they kill a bush baby and they all laugh at it being the most ugly thing they have every seen. I loved the relationship between Tommy and Petie, their friendship was wonderful, I loved their love of reading, their letters to each other and the way that although Tommy was bored at first, his boredom led him to discover new wonders. Without this awful treatment of animals and the way Hazeline's engagement was broken off because it was in common agreement she need to lose a stone or more, this would have been a 4:or 5 star. There was such depressing animal cruelty in this book which was of course completely realistic of the time this was set.

The Midnight Fox by Betsy Byars