One Fox: A Counting Book Thriller

There are not many counting books that declare themselves to be “thrillers,” but such is the proclamation of One Fox, and it is true to its word. While by the counting title one might first expect this to be a simple board book, instead of the picture book form it is, it’s clever development is better suited for—indeed relies on—an audience with the emotional maturity to understand the different feelings created by the story: foreboding, apprehension, suspense, comic relief. Readers will be especially shocked when it appears the “one famished fox” has actually eaten the “three plump hens.” Read’s gorgeous illustrations done in collage style with mixed media bring a playful and captivating style to the story, as in the scene when the fox’s long body and enormously bushy tale are depicted encircling the hen house, producing an absolutely ominous feeling in readers. Employing few words and relying mostly on the illustrations to tell the story, it is disappointing that with only numbers one through nine to account for, “eyes” are used in two different instances: “Two sly eyes,” and later “Eight beady eyes,” though in the latter instance it is funny to compare the three set of concerned eyes belonging to the hens with the one set of excited fox eyes. A delightful culmination is provided by the juxtaposition between the impression that the hens have been eaten with the shocking reality that in fact the hunted have become the hunters.