Tuesday, May 15, 2012

The Fantastic Mr. Fox

Author:  Roald Dahl
Lexile measure: 600
Language:  No swear words, but some of the villains do get awfully close with name calling.
Violence:  The villains carry guns to shoot Mr. Fox and his friends if they see him but they never actually kill anyone.
Big Kid Mature Topics:  drunkeness in some of the villains.  Stealing on the part of animals.  The text of the book justifies stealing by animals--they do it to be able to eat.  The villains are caricatured almost to the point of not counting as sentient beings, though this is not stated overtly.
Illustrations:  Varies according to the edition.
Plot:  moderately complex.

As with many of Dahl's books, this book is somewhat dark in nature.  While I think the writing in this book justifies its status as a classic, there is a lot of moral content that is much more suited to an older, grade school reader.  My daughter read this a couple of times, but it wasn't a favorite--but she's the kind who loves to protect living things (even weeds and bugs!) whether or not they are destructive.

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