Is 2016 shaping up to be the Year of Sad or what? (See: [b:Raymie Nightingale|25937866|Raymie Nightingale|Kate DiCamillo|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1446751148s/25937866.jpg|45835163] and [b:Pax|22098550|Pax|Sara Pennypacker|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1434493048s/22098550.jpg|41443759].)

By the way, total tangent, I unofficially dubbed 2015 the Year of the Grandparent: [b:Listen, Slowly|22477286|Listen, Slowly|Thanhha Lai|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1418764650s/22477286.jpg|41725865], [b:Circus Mirandus|23281919|Circus Mirandus|Cassie Beasley|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1415585333s/23281919.jpg|41824344], [b:Goodbye Stranger|23615709|Goodbye Stranger|Rebecca Stead|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1439670673s/23615709.jpg|43219487], [b:Gone Crazy in Alabama|22836574|Gone Crazy in Alabama (Gaither Sisters, #3)|Rita Williams-Garcia|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1417982385s/22836574.jpg|42391493], [b:Bayou Magic|23197281|Bayou Magic|Jewell Parker Rhodes|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1413130729s/23197281.jpg|42742269], [b:Sunny Side Up|24612600|Sunny Side Up|Jennifer L. Holm|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1423543976s/24612600.jpg|44223650], [b:The Lightning Queen|25205301|The Lightning Queen|Laura Resau|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1457104810s/25205301.jpg|44917987], [b:Great Ball of Light|20537712|Great Ball of Light|Evan Kuhlman|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1425975239s/20537712.jpg|37781711], [b:In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse|24795887|In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse|Joseph Marshall|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1425594754s/24795887.jpg|44431922], [b:Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer|22639675|Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer|Kelly Jones|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1404420425s/22639675.jpg|42139665], and saving the best for (ahem) last, [b:Last Stop on Market Street|22521973|Last Stop on Market Street|Matt de la Pena|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1453342770s/22521973.jpg|41969141].

That was fun! I'd much rather list books I enjoyed last year than dwell on how depressed I am by this year's books. Honestly, Maybe a Fox isn't a bad book. Raymie and Pax aren't bad books either. But they're all so depressing. (Though not one of them actually made me cry, and I'm a crier.)

So here we go. This is a book about grieving. There are not one, not two, not three, but four deaths in this story. (I'm counting Sylvie's and Senna's deaths separately. I can't believe that poor girl had to die twice.)

There's a unique kind of spiritualism running through this book. You can call it mythic. You can call is animism. You can call it fantasy. It's hard to pin down and I suppose that's what makes it interesting. Jules and Sylvie often like to guess at what happens when you die. Maybe you turn into a star. Maybe you disappear. Maybe you fly to another planet. I don't think they ever say, "Maybe you go to heaven," or "Maybe you turn into a ghost," like one would expect. The clue to what actually happens in this book is right there in the title.

This is undoubtedly beautifully written, especially if you're into Appelt's signature style of simple, poetic repetitive phrasing. It did leave some loose ends dangling (they never find Sylvie's body, and the Zeke/catamount story fades away without resolution) but the main plot ties up in a mostly satisfying way. I think this will be appealing to fans of [b:The Underneath|2768169|The Underneath|Kathi Appelt|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347371015s/2768169.jpg|2793892] but I doubt I'll be recommending it unless a kid comes into the library and says, "Do you have any good books for morbid animal lovers?"

I listened to the audiobook, which I thought was very well done as read by Allison McGhee. ( )

Representation: N/A
Trigger warnings: Death of a child, death of a sister, grief and loss depiction, death of a brother
Score: Eight points out of ten.

I decided to read this book a while back, and not long after, I finally read it. I didn't know what to expect, and I hoped that it would be better than the last book I read; I'm so glad I did since this was an intriguing book about grief, yet it also has a touch of fantasy, but I can say that I've read better books like this since then, where do I even begin. It starts with the main characters Sylvie and Jules, whose surnames I forgot, and initially, they live their lives together. They have fascinating characteristics since one is like a geologist, and the other is a fast runner. This is where the book first started to hit me like a truck when suddenly Sylvie ran too fast with nothing to stop her except a creek, and thus she ran into it and died there. For some reason, the book then cuts to another POV of a fox whose name I forgot if it even had one at all, and I think it was born after the death of Sylvie. I didn't know that could happen, but alright.

The book alternates between the two remaining characters as one tries to comprehend what just happened, and the fox tries to live the life it was given, and only a few pages later, they meet one another. However, I think there was a barrier between them. Even though this is quite heavy, the fantasy aspect of this book shines just a little more in the spotlight, hence why the library put this in the fantasy section. Did I mention another character, Elk, who interacted with Jules for a good portion of the book and dealt with his struggles? Even though I enjoyed reading all these characters, I've seen more fleshed-out ones. By the end of the book, Jules and Elk move on from their trauma, and the fox reaches the end of its arc, wrapping this up on a high note. ( )

It seems like the books I am choosing to read are all survival, emotional, coming of age stories. In this story, Jules and her sister Sylive live with their father. Their mother is dead. One day as she was bringing the groceries up to the house she crumpled and died. Sylvie ran as fast as she could to the neighbor's house. In her mind it wasn't fast enough. Jules collects rocks. She knows just about everything there is to know about them. She and her sister occasionally sneak off to throw rocks they have written their wishes on into the Slip. Their father has forbidden them to go there because it is dangerous. One morning after it snows the girls go out to build a snow family before the bus comes. Sylvie decides to throw a wish rock into the river. She doesn't return. Once again Jules is dealing with the grief that accompanies death. The other voice in the story is that of a fox who is born at the same time Sylvie dies. She is a special spirit animal connected to another being. The thoughts of Jules, the fox, Jules friend Sam and his brother Elk ring so true. It shows the range of emotions and the way that different people handle grief. The title comes from a game Sylvie and Jules played after their mother's death. They wanted to know what happened to you after you died. I won't say more than this because it would be way too easy to give too much away and this is a must read. Just make sure you have a box of tissues with you. ( )

Oh my god, you guys, this book is so sad!
Beautiful and wonderful, but so, so sad. I almost had to skim read the ending because I was on the train and didn't want to cry in public.
I picked it up because the cover is beautiful, and the blurb sounded interesting, and I'd read a book by Kathi Appelt before and really enjoyed it ((The Underneath)). It was an impulse read and I'm so glad I picked it up.
It tells the story of Sylvie and Jules, two sisters who are very different. But very close. Their mother died suddenly, Jules' memory of her is fading, but Sylvie remember almost everything. They're dealing with that grief and that absence when Sylvie disappears and Jules is left behind.
And then there is Senna, a little fox cub born in the woods near the Sherman property. She is drawn to Jules for some reason.
It is just a lovely book. And although it does deal with some heavy topics, death and grief, it does so in such a beautiful way. I would highly recommend this book. Especially to any fox fans out there. Just be prepared for tears. ( )

FROM AMAZON: Sylvie and Jules, Jules and Sylvie. Better than just sisters, more than best friends, they’d be identical twins if only they’d been born in the same year. And if only Sylvie wasn’t such a fast—faster than fast—runner. But Sylvie is too fast, and when she runs to the river they’re not supposed to go anywhere near to throw a wish rock just before the school bus comes on a snowy morning, she runs so fast that no one sees what happens…and no one ever sees her again. Jules is devastated, but she refuses to believe what all the others believe, that—like their mother—her sister is gone forever.

At the very same time, in the shadow world, a shadow fox is born—half of the spirit world, half of the animal world. She too is fast—faster than fast—and she senses danger. She’s too young to know exactly what she senses, but she knows something is very wrong. And when Jules believes one last wish rock for Sylvie needs to be thrown into the river, the human and shadow worlds collide.