Fox Farm

Eileen Dunlop sets the tone and style of her book early. Her description of the atmosphere and effect caused by Mr Drake's shooting of the fox, within the context of the marauder's murderous onslaught on the henhouse, establishes this as a story to stay with. Adam and Richard Darke are step-brothers, but the brotherliness is in name only, their relationship being that of 'acquaintances who shared a room'. Adam has been fostered, but makes it plain 'that he is only passing through...as he had passed through many placed before'. To this end, he still persisted in keeping his suitcase under the bed, handy for the next move. The catalyst to the flowering of a relationship between the two boys is the orphaned fox cub, subject of neat parallels and analogies to their own situation, out of which the story is allowed to develop without labouring, into a sensitive, caring novel, eminently suitable for top juniors.