Pennypacker, Sara.(2016). Pax. Balzer + Bray.
Sara Pennypacker wrote one of my favorite mid-grade books, Clementine. I learned (way too late of course) about her book, Pax last year and THIS year that Jon Klassen, of “I Want My Hat Back” fame, did the few illustrations. Plus it’s about a fox and his boy. I love foxes. So, let’s get to it.
The book opens with a boy, Peter, his pet fox, Pax and his dad in a car. Peter is visibly upset but Pax can’t quite figure out what’s going on, even after his boy and the boy’s father leave Pax in the forest, by the edge of a road. Peter and Pax’s have such a close bond that they share images from life, and anticipate each other’s needs and emotions.
It turns out there is a war coming and Peter, his mom having died and his dad, having enlisted, has to go live with his grandfather until his abusive father returns. Releasing Pax, he’s told Peter, is the right thing to do. Only, while at his grandfather’s, Peter realizes that he shouldn’t have let his dad talk him into it, that he never should have abandoned his friend, and that he is going to find him no matter what. So, he runs away in the middle of the night, determined to make the 300 miles back to where he left Pax. But on the way, he breaks his foot.
I’m not going to tell you exactly how it happens but he ends up on a farm in the middle of nowhere with Vola, a somewhat surly, former combat medic suffering from PTSD who is trying to figure out who she is, after returning from the war and losing a leg many years prior. In the process, she helps Peter heal (enough), teaches him new skills, resilience, independence and emotional intelligence, and he, in turn, helps heal a part of her. They become family, and she helps him get to Pax after a delay.
But Pax has met and made a new family of his own in the wild, and oddly enough, has found Peter’s father. But he’s also found loss, death, betrayal and the meaning of war.
Peter and Pax’s reunion is heartwarming, but complicated and the book ends in a way not wholly expected, though necessary. Must mean I have to read the sequel!
Word to the wise, while this book did make me sad a number of times (but not quite Bridge to Terabithia sad) it is very good. I expected nothing less from Pennypacker. However, please be aware, like I said, that there are some complicated scenes and feelings in this book, including death and maiming of animals by land mines, and while it isn’t extremely graphic, it CAN be hard. But at the same time, the emotions the book elicits is part of what makes it great.
Here are a couple of my favorite quotes:
“Vola studied him. “One was is always growing in the world boy. Two but not two. It’s always there, connecting its roots, humming. I can’t be part of it – that’s the price I pay for taking myself away. But you can be. You can vibrate with its heartbeat. You may be on your own. But you won’t be alone.”
“People should tell the truth about what war costs,” Vola had said.
Funny how all my favorite quotes come from Vola, a very complicated character still trying to figure things out.
I highly recommend this book, for those that you think can handle the aforementioned potential triggers. It’s a truly monumental story, simply disguised as the story of a boy and his pet.
Recommended Ages: 9-12