Basho and the Fox

A fanciful original story about the great Japanese poet Basho.  (Basho's haiku's are wonderful and make perfect little poems to slip into letters and pockets and lunchboxes.)  

This story has Basho challenged by a fox and given three chances to write a great haiku.  The ending is cute (and it's fun seeing a fox wearing a kimono!)

Basho and the Fox 

Jim Myers

illustrated by Oki S. Han 2000

I also happen to be reading this collection of his travel writing and it's wonderful!

"The moon and the sun are eternal travelers.  Even the years wander on.  A lifetime adrift in a boat, or in old age leading a tired horse into the years, every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home."

-Basho

 

The Foundling Fox

I can't help but think this would be a wonderful book for adoptive families.  The story is so sweet and feels like an old fashioned fable.  

The Foundling Fox

Irina Korschunow

pictures by Reinhard Michl 1988

An orphaned baby fox is found by another mother fox.  She lets him suckle and then carries him to her own den.  On the way she's chased by a hound and confronted by a badger.  Putting her own life on the line, she defends and protects her new foundling baby.  The most poignant part is at the end when another mother fox chides her for adopting something that wasn't her own.  When she goes to her den to show off how wonderful the new kit is, she realizes that all her baby foxes smell the same and she no longer knows which one was the foundling.  She loves them all equally. 

The vixen poked her head out of the den.

"I'm very sorry," she said,

"but I cannot show my founding fox to you.  

I really don't know which of my kits

 is my foundling fox." 

"How dreadful!" cried the neighbor.

The vixen had to laugh.

"It isn't dreadful," she said, 

"I love all four of them the same, 

and that is that."

And so, the little fox 

was no longer a foundling fox.  

He was the vixen's kit, 

and she was his mother.  

She fed him 

and gave him milk.

She protected him

and taught him everything

a fox should know.

The Fox and the Cat

All sorts of silly, fun tales by the Grimm Brothers featuring animals and foxes in particular.

 

The Fox and the Cat

Animal Tales from Grimm

Kevin Crossley Holland

illustrated by Susan Varley

In one story Wolf does old dog a favor and in another fox uses his tricks to help an old horse.  The famous story "The Bremen Town Musicians" is included and all the tales are full of sharp humor and a lesson.

I just loved that the cat on the cover looks like our calico "S'more".