The Fox on the Swing

The Fox on the Swing
Written by Evelina Daciute
Illustrated by Ausra Kiudulaite
Published in 2018 by Thames and Hudson
48 pages
International Literature

Evelina Daciute is the author of The Fox on the Swing book and Aušra Kiudulaite is the illustrator. It was published and copyrighted in the U.S. by Thames and Hudson on June 19, 2018, however, it was originally published in Lithuania in 2016. Its original publication in another country qualifies this story as international literature. The story is 48 pages long. The illustrator used a collage style for the pictures in this book and does workshops to teach children this tactic. The images in The Fox on the Swing resemble childhood art and drawings. The essential question of this book is simply, "What makes you happy?" The plotline encourages children to think to themselves and answer this question. In the story, a boy named Paul meets a fox on his way home from the bakery. The fox challenges Paul's predictable routines and encourages him to think deeply about the life he is living and life for what makes him truly happy. This would be a great book to help children think about their attitudes and expectations in life. The first English Langauge Arts standard for second-grade is:  Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text. [RL.2.1] a. Infer the main idea and supporting details in narrative texts. (Alabama.) I could use this story to teach inferencing since the story never explicitly states its purpose and the concepts the fox covers are whimsical and philosophical.