Gillian Rubinstein Quotes

After Tod compassionately buries a dead fox, a fox-spirit offers him the chance to become a fox himself. Will Tod choose his complex, human life or the simple, wild life of a fox?

The mom is trying to be a stand up comedian which is different. Would have been nice to have Dad in the picture a little more. He mostly gets talked about, but then calls the household near the end of the book.

After Tod’s father abandoned the family, his mother moved them into their grandmother’s crowded house. Overwhelmed at school, Tod finds himself lagging behind his classmates and becoming entangled in a destructive gang

The story centers around Tod, a young boy whose parents are separated and is living at Grandma’s with Mom and 2 sisters. It’s dysfunctional but it works.

We don’t get to him or his perspective about what’s going on. The sisters are typical: the good sister who takes care of things and the bad sister who hangs with the wrong crowd.

Tod is faced with the choice of joining a gang and is pressured because he’s a good artist and would help improve their graffiti art around the area.

The slightly dysfunctional family in this book and the way they are making the best of a bad situation. After a marriage breakup they are forced to move across the country and squeeze in with Grandma in her tiny house by the train tracks.

Two older sisters are coping with high school- boys, pressures of studying and fitting in. Grandma is grumpy due to having her house invaded but underneath is compassionate, and shares the old Dreamtime stories.

The main character Tod is sent off to the local primary school where being the 32nd kid in the class doesn’t do his learning difficulties any good. Tod is keenly aware that he is not like the other kids.

He seeks respite from his troubles in the natural landscape around his Grandma’s house. But it’s like the landscape is also struggling with change and continuity.