Foxcraft – The Taken

Foxcraft - The Taken by Inbali Iserles is an animal adventure for 8 year olds about a young fox searching for her family in a dangerous world.

What happens

Isla lives with her family close to the human world. She and her brother Pirie chase each other through the grass and try out their tricks. Their games can look very fierce, but they end with the pair curled close together.

Then Isla returns to find fire at the den. Strange foxes are nearby and her family has vanished. She has to escape into places she's been warned to avoid.

Finding them will take more than knowing where to hide. Isla needs to learn the magic that foxes call foxcraft. An enemy is hunting her while she's trying to work out how to survive.

You see everything through Isla's eyes, ears and nose. A gap under a fence can mean safety. The smell of another fox or a sudden noise can change what she does next.

If your reader likes feeling that they're inside an animal's world, there's plenty here to enjoy. The humans have their own strange names. Places that might seem ordinary to us can feel huge and threatening when you're a small fox.

The opening game with Pirie gives you a chance to know the family before things go wrong. He's bigger and likes teasing her about it. Isla is quite sure being cleverer makes up for that (she doesn't think much of losing).

Their tricks make you curious about the magic too. Isla tries copying a bird's call and Pirie seems to disappear for a moment during the chase. You get little glimpses of what foxes might be able to do before Isla needs those skills for something serious.

The danger is worth knowing about. A burning home, a missing family and being hunted are central to the adventure. If your child finds animals in peril very upsetting, this may be a difficult choice.

For a reader who likes a survival story with magic to discover, Isla gives them someone to follow closely. Her search matters because you've already seen what being with her family means to her.

What to read next

The Chicken Gave it to Me has another animal with her own view of the world. It's in the library too, with a hen's story, visiting aliens and some upsetting descriptions of how the farm animals are treated.