The Midnight Fox

No one asked Tom how he would feel about spending two months on his Aunt Millie's farm. Maybe that's because he would have said he didn't feel good about it at all. Tom doesn't like animals and they don't like him - and now the city boy has to put up with stampeding baby lambs, boy-chasing chickens, and more. Worst of all, he's lonely. With no friends around, there isn't much for him to do besides explore the fields and nearby forest on his own.

Then Tom sees a graceful black fox in the woods. Suddenly he finds he can spend hours watching her. Without even realizing it, he starts to become more comfortable with the power, beauty, and mysterious magic of the natural world, and to feel that he is a part of nature himself. When the lives of his fox and her cub are in danger, Tom knows that he has to do something.

Betsy Byars, Newbery Medal-winning author of The Summer of the Swans, The Pinballs, and numerous other books for young readers, has created a thoughtful environmental story with a likable hero. Her full, detailed descriptions of the fox and her world make nature come alive for readers just as it gradually does for Tom himself. But it's Tom's believable, strong connection with the midnight fox that makes this book so compelling for both city kids and country kids alike.