Books with author Sven Nordqvist

Kindergarten-Grade 3-- Farmer Festus, his clever cat Mercury, and his neighbor Hiram, all formerly featured in Nordqvist's Pancake Pie (Morrow, 1985), are back in a new adventure. Hiram is toting a gun and planning to shoot a fox that stole one of his chickens, but Festus and Mercury agree that it is far better to outfox a fox than to shoot him. A lavish plan follows, complete with fake chickens, an assortment of fireworks on one long fuse, plus a rope and pulley arrangement complete with ghost costume for Mercury. Anticipation is high as night approaches--the brightly painted scenes of country days give way to several pages of gray-shrouded night scenes as the fox approaches but backs away from the false hen. In the end, Hiram vows never to hunt a fox again, and the fox is gone for good. Cleverness, hilarity, and compassion mix well in this amusing story with a gentle moral about caring for all creatures, even hungry foxes. Festus and Mercury are a pair of wise country bumpkins, Festus with a scraggly beard and rope belt, and Mercury in baggy overalls. Both the text and the illustrations are similar in style to Pancake Pie. The exploits are again illustrated in bright colors overflowing with cunning details that demand repeated examination. This will captivate kindergarten and primary grades as a read-aloud; many listeners will want to take it home and reread it in order to absorb all of the details