Leila and the Blue Fox
Written by Kiran Millwood Hargrave and illustrated by Tom de Freston. From the wife and husband team behind Waterstones Children’s Gift of the Year Julia and the Shark comes a luminous tribute to the power of determination and friendship as a young fox and a girl seeking her mother join forces on an unforgettable Arctic adventure.
Fox wakes, and begins to walk. She crosses ice and snow, over mountains and across frozen oceans, encountering bears and birds beneath the endless daylight of an Arctic summer, navigating a world that is vast, wild and wondrous.
She was very tired.
She lay down, her soft head on her soft paws.
The sunset licked her face.
The snow covered her like a blanket.
Meanwhile, Leila embarks on a journey of her own – finding her way to the mother who left her. On a breathtaking journey across the sea, Leila rediscovers herself and the mother she thought she’d lost, with help from a determined little fox.
The perfect marriage of words and pictures together on the page
M. G. Leonard