Foxlight
Winner of the Wainwright Children's Prize 2024
Published on 28. September 2023
Book
Hardback
272 pages
978-1-5266-4044-4 (ISBN)
Description
*** WINNER OF THE 2024 WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR CHILDREN'S WRITING ***
From the author of October, October, winner of the Yoto Carnegie Medal, comes a heartbreaking and heart-warming story about sisterhood, found family and accepting love in the most unusual and unknown places.
Fen and Rey were found curled up small and tight in the fiery fur of the foxes at the very edge of the wildlands. Fen is loud and fierce and free. She feels a connection to foxes and a calling from the wild that she's desperate to return to. Rey is quiet and shy and an expert on nature. She reads about the birds, feeds the lands and nurtures the world around her.
They are twin sisters. Different and the same. Separate and connected. They will always have each other, even if they don't have a mother and don't know their beginning. But they do want answers. Answers to who their mother is and where she might be. What their story is and how it began. So when a fox appears late one night at the house, Fen and Rey see it as a sign - it's here to lead them to their truth, find their real family and fill the missing piece they have felt since they were born.
But the wildlands are exactly that: wild. They are wicked and cruel and brutal and this journey will be harder and more life changing than either Fen or Rey ever imagined ...
From the author of October, October, winner of the Yoto Carnegie Medal, comes a heartbreaking and heart-warming story about sisterhood, found family and accepting love in the most unusual and unknown places.
Fen and Rey were found curled up small and tight in the fiery fur of the foxes at the very edge of the wildlands. Fen is loud and fierce and free. She feels a connection to foxes and a calling from the wild that she's desperate to return to. Rey is quiet and shy and an expert on nature. She reads about the birds, feeds the lands and nurtures the world around her.
They are twin sisters. Different and the same. Separate and connected. They will always have each other, even if they don't have a mother and don't know their beginning. But they do want answers. Answers to who their mother is and where she might be. What their story is and how it began. So when a fox appears late one night at the house, Fen and Rey see it as a sign - it's here to lead them to their truth, find their real family and fill the missing piece they have felt since they were born.
But the wildlands are exactly that: wild. They are wicked and cruel and brutal and this journey will be harder and more life changing than either Fen or Rey ever imagined ...
Reviews / Votes
Lyrical, with a quality of fairytale - a finely crafted celebration of nature, sisterhood, stories and love * The Times * Beautifully poetic and steeped in the natural world * Sainsbury's Magazine * Beautifully written * The Week Junior * Quietly wild, richly thoughtful * The Guardian * Some books are set out as verse but never achieve the poetic. Foxlight is set out as prose, but has the depth of poetry. * The Jewish Chronicle * Quite simply one of the most beautiful books I've ever read * Kiran Millwood Hargrave on October, October * Katya Balen's October, October is a very special new addition to the shelf and deserves classic status * Times Children's Book of the Week on October, October * It's EXQUISITE. Read it. Wild yourself. Open your heart to it. Written with the pen of a poet and the soul of Mother Earth. Glorious. It's like nothing else I've ever read. * Liz Hyder, award-winning author of Bearmouth on October, October * I love Katya Balen's clear-eyed, poetic writing style, first encountered in The Space We're In and October, October. She has a special ability to dig deep into the emotional lives of the children she writes about; she is always privy to their darkest thoughts, always on their side. Original, compulsive, uplifting: this is another triumph for Balen. * The Times Children's Book of the Week on The Light in Everything * I loved this book. The deftness with which Katya creates such passionate, funny, broken, brave characters. What an achievement. Katya Balen can break your heart and make you snort with laughter in the same sentence * Natasha Farrant on The Light in Everything * Balen writes with sensitivity, highlighting how difficult change can be for a young person while ultimately creating an uplifting story * The Week Magazine on The Light in Everything *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
Children/juvenile
Interest Age: From 8 to 12 years
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-5266-4044-4 (9781526640444)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
09/2023
1st Edition
Bloomsbury Childrens Books
€10.99
Available for download
Person
Katya Balen is an award-winning author of books for children. Katya's debut novel, The Space We're In, was published in 2019 and was highly commended for the Branford Boase Award. Her second, October, October, won the Yoto Carnegie Medal. Her third novel, The Light in Everything, was published in 2022. When she's not writing books, Katya likes to scroll through dog-rescue websites, bake, and attempt to keep all her house plants alive. She lives in London with her partner and their dogs Raffi and Mouse.
@katyabalen
@katyabalen