Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 9, 1994 TAG: 9407210050
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: B12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Reviewed by LYNN ECKMAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
By Eve Bunting. Paintings by Wendell Minor. Clarion Books. $15.95.
Eve Bunting's quiet, poetic text tells the story of a red fox searching for food in the snowy forest. Large detailed illustrations of wildlife and landscapes dramatize the fox's desperate hunt to find something to eat.
When food is finally found in the form of an unidentified furry animal, it seems natural to feel relief for the fox, but to have no feelings toward the prey. Readers are merely content to know that the fox will be alive tomorrow.
``Red Fox Running'' lays out the hard fact that animals kill to eat or they die. And yet, a 7-year-old child, sensitive to life and death, summed up this story as ``soothing.''
Perhaps that is how nature, when left alone, is.
\ Lynn Erwin is a librarian at Hollins College.
by CNB