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Foxspell
Unhappy in Grandma's house, full of his battling, broken family, and at the new school ruled by lawless gangs, Tod takes refuge in the old quarries, where the fox-man Dan Russell shows him a secret, other life. But as he gets more involved in the fox world,Tod learns that no life is quite independent, and that the freedom of the wild can be even more cruel than the painful tangles of human society...
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
7 people are currently reading
256 people want to read
About the author
Gillian Rubinstein
46 books40 followershttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gillian_...
Also works under the pen name Lian Hearn
Also works under the pen name Lian Hearn
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
January 3, 2020
My mind was blown.
July 29, 2014
Dan Russell – a fox spirit – has been called to Australia by the foxes. He meets Tod, a boy whose father has gone to England, in the Adelaide Hills. Dan puts a fox sleep on the house, so he can be undisturbed. Meantime Tod is invited to join The Breakers, a gang whose leader is Shaun. Shaun won’t even allow Adrian, his own brother in, until Tod joins.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 13, 2012
Good old english reading assignments!
November 13, 2023
What??? Did I miss something? Is there a sequel? Am I missing the last few pages? I feel like Hazel from "The Fault in our Stars" with the longing for an ending to her novel. After all, I am invested in these characters and I need to know what becomes of them!
At first I had trouble getting into the book, but as the story builds up and gets more exciting, I start to get really into it. Will Tod choose to leave his family and live life as a fox, Will his Dad come home, Will the breakers find him and teach him a lesson, what will happen to the family? So many questions! The list goes on.
As the book nears the final chapters the climax builds, so much is happening, I can't imagine what the resolve will be. As the family erupts into chaos I fully expect Tod to run off and become a fox for good.
To my absolute shock and horror, the book builds this climax right until the final page, ending with a tradgedy. I left feeling apsolutely sick to my stomach and disgusted. Books, even if they don't have a happy ending, (which some like for example The Boy in the Striped Pajamas don't need,) should at least wrap you up and leave you with something to ponder. I felt like this just doesn't really make any sense. Why tell a story if you don't mean to finish it? Maybe someone can answer this question for me.
There was just way too much that was upsetting and nothing of character growth or development or anything at all getting resolved. In fact, it felt like the author decided to make this purely a series of ongoing unresolved issues. Literally no resolutions were reached on any account.
Okay, rant over. I am pretty torn over which rating to give this book because, after all, it did capture me in its spell in its haunting and soul stirring words. I think the author just lost me when the cat died, it just felt like too much. Though I realize because I am a big cat lover I am a little biased but the details were gruesome and felt unnecessary. I really want to give this book a higher rating but in the end a book has to be judged by how a person feels once they've finished it. And this book left me feeling sick to my shomach and disgusted. So three stars for the writing and story.
At first I had trouble getting into the book, but as the story builds up and gets more exciting, I start to get really into it. Will Tod choose to leave his family and live life as a fox, Will his Dad come home, Will the breakers find him and teach him a lesson, what will happen to the family? So many questions! The list goes on.
As the book nears the final chapters the climax builds, so much is happening, I can't imagine what the resolve will be. As the family erupts into chaos I fully expect Tod to run off and become a fox for good.
To my absolute shock and horror, the book builds this climax right until the final page, ending with a tradgedy. I left feeling apsolutely sick to my stomach and disgusted. Books, even if they don't have a happy ending, (which some like for example The Boy in the Striped Pajamas don't need,) should at least wrap you up and leave you with something to ponder. I felt like this just doesn't really make any sense. Why tell a story if you don't mean to finish it? Maybe someone can answer this question for me.
There was just way too much that was upsetting and nothing of character growth or development or anything at all getting resolved. In fact, it felt like the author decided to make this purely a series of ongoing unresolved issues. Literally no resolutions were reached on any account.
Okay, rant over. I am pretty torn over which rating to give this book because, after all, it did capture me in its spell in its haunting and soul stirring words. I think the author just lost me when the cat died, it just felt like too much. Though I realize because I am a big cat lover I am a little biased but the details were gruesome and felt unnecessary. I really want to give this book a higher rating but in the end a book has to be judged by how a person feels once they've finished it. And this book left me feeling sick to my shomach and disgusted. So three stars for the writing and story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 31, 2019
Interesting story, liked the fox aspect, very in tune with nature of Australia, but you don't get the "exotic" feel. Just appears normal, everyday life.
The story centers around Tod, a young boy whose parents are separated and is living at Grandma's with Mom and 2 sisters. It's dysfunctional but it works. The mom is trying to be a stand up comedian which is different. Would have been nice to have Dad in the picture a little more. He mostly gets talked about, but then calls the household near the end the end of the book. We don't get to him or his perspective about what's going on. The sisters are typical: the good sister who takes care of things and the bad sister who hangs with the wrong crowd. School is described differently than here in the US. It's similar to the 1 room schoolhouses where there was 1 teacher for all the kids and multiple grades that were common in communities a long time ago.
Tod is faced with the choice of joining a gang and is pressured because he's a good artist and would help improve their graffiti art around the area. I don't agree with some of the choices he makes, but I like how he thinks about things and makes his own choices (good or not so good). I'm sure readers can relate about choices in their lives no matter how old they are.
The end of the book really just ends. There are no scenes of consequences after the climax of the story. It is a good discussion point where a group can talk about how you'd react and how your actions can affect the rest of your life and others. The whole turning into a fox thing is cool. I like how Tod "dumbs" down to an animal's nature when he becomes a fox. He and his mentor use simple words when communicating - "Hunting." "Rabbit." "Bad."
Overall it's a nice realistic fantasy. Beautiful cover art for the actual book.
The story centers around Tod, a young boy whose parents are separated and is living at Grandma's with Mom and 2 sisters. It's dysfunctional but it works. The mom is trying to be a stand up comedian which is different. Would have been nice to have Dad in the picture a little more. He mostly gets talked about, but then calls the household near the end the end of the book. We don't get to him or his perspective about what's going on. The sisters are typical: the good sister who takes care of things and the bad sister who hangs with the wrong crowd. School is described differently than here in the US. It's similar to the 1 room schoolhouses where there was 1 teacher for all the kids and multiple grades that were common in communities a long time ago.
Tod is faced with the choice of joining a gang and is pressured because he's a good artist and would help improve their graffiti art around the area. I don't agree with some of the choices he makes, but I like how he thinks about things and makes his own choices (good or not so good). I'm sure readers can relate about choices in their lives no matter how old they are.
The end of the book really just ends. There are no scenes of consequences after the climax of the story. It is a good discussion point where a group can talk about how you'd react and how your actions can affect the rest of your life and others. The whole turning into a fox thing is cool. I like how Tod "dumbs" down to an animal's nature when he becomes a fox. He and his mentor use simple words when communicating - "Hunting." "Rabbit." "Bad."
Overall it's a nice realistic fantasy. Beautiful cover art for the actual book.
August 11, 2017
I really like the slightly dysfunctional family in this book and the way they are making the best of a bad situation. After a marriage breakup they are forced to move across the country and squeeze in with Grandma in her tiny house by the train tracks. Mum is focussed on making it as a stand up comedian and using the family as material for her routines. Two older sisters are coping with high school- boys, pressures of studying and fitting in. Grandma is grumpy due to having her house invaded but underneath is compassionate, and shares the old Dreamtime stories. The main character Tod is sent off to the local primary school where being the 32nd kid in the class doesn't do his learning difficulties any good. Tod is keenly aware that he is not like the other kids. He seeks respite from his troubles in the natural landscape around his Grandma's house. But it's like the landscape is also struggling with change and continuity. Who was here first? Who owns it now? What belongs?
It's a spellbinding tale of belonging and alienation. I would have preferred a less spooky and more conclusive ending. A very well written, magical story which reminded me of one of my favourites, Patricia Wrightson's 'The Nargun and the Stars'. It's also reminiscent of 'Thursday's Child' by Sonya Hartnett. I loved the description of the landscape and the bush around Adelaide.
It's a spellbinding tale of belonging and alienation. I would have preferred a less spooky and more conclusive ending. A very well written, magical story which reminded me of one of my favourites, Patricia Wrightson's 'The Nargun and the Stars'. It's also reminiscent of 'Thursday's Child' by Sonya Hartnett. I loved the description of the landscape and the bush around Adelaide.
April 14, 2020
An intriguing, warm, well-written book set locally; I really enjoyed this, and it is thematically rich. Would teach to Yr 7 & 8.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 21, 2020
Tod's life is anything but smooth, but he does love his family despite all their faults and complications. The fox loves him too - despite all his human failings.
But is the fox the answer?
But is the fox the answer?
Read
December 21, 2021Check out my full review here: https://tintededges.com/2021/12/22/fo...
October 8, 2022
Amazing, but truly upsetting as well.
May 2, 2024
Honestly only read it because my partner said he raid it and enjoyed it while he was in high school.
Read
October 16, 2011I first got this book in abridged audiobook format. I only liked to listen to it with my headphones, because there was swearing in it, and I was only ten years old, and feared my mother would take it off me if she found out this YA book wasn't quite appropriate for ten-year-olds.
Later, when I reached high school (which starts at age 12 in Australia), my brother was given this book for Christmas. Despite the fact that he didn't want it, he wouldn't let me borrow it to read it. One night I crept into his darkened bedroom and took it, and read along with my audio book, reading all the parts left out. I never gave it back. He never missed it.
I love foxes. I grew up in the only place bar Antarctica where a species of fox doesn't live. They've always been a very exotic, curious species to me, and they fascinate me. This year I got to see my very first live fox. I was surprised by how big he was.
This book is about what happens when a compassionate young boy buries a dead fox, and a great fox spirit takes him under his wing and teaches him all about foxes. It's about escapism, and broken families and gang violence and peer pressure and friendship.
There's also some great contemporary urban scenes surrounding Tod's fascinating family. Even if this wasn't a book about foxes, I'd still enjoy it.
Later, when I reached high school (which starts at age 12 in Australia), my brother was given this book for Christmas. Despite the fact that he didn't want it, he wouldn't let me borrow it to read it. One night I crept into his darkened bedroom and took it, and read along with my audio book, reading all the parts left out. I never gave it back. He never missed it.
I love foxes. I grew up in the only place bar Antarctica where a species of fox doesn't live. They've always been a very exotic, curious species to me, and they fascinate me. This year I got to see my very first live fox. I was surprised by how big he was.
This book is about what happens when a compassionate young boy buries a dead fox, and a great fox spirit takes him under his wing and teaches him all about foxes. It's about escapism, and broken families and gang violence and peer pressure and friendship.
There's also some great contemporary urban scenes surrounding Tod's fascinating family. Even if this wasn't a book about foxes, I'd still enjoy it.
November 3, 2014
Rubinstein's characters are always so relatably flawed, so set in the real world of poverty and difficult family relationships- she navigates class and gender sensitively, without white-washing the reality or stereotyping she manages to have people we can recognize from contemporary Australian society. This book I liked even more because the setting was so obviously South Australia and I related to much of the negative culture in it.
It's a sad book- I wouldn't necessarily think every child had the stomach for it but I am really glad I read it. The foxes in the book are problematized rather than demonized and it seems the feral animal is a metaphor for other dilemmas without easy answers. To be in touch with the earth in the modern sense can be to have a bond with feral plants or animals after all.
The family in the book is warm yet flawed.
So much to love
It's a sad book- I wouldn't necessarily think every child had the stomach for it but I am really glad I read it. The foxes in the book are problematized rather than demonized and it seems the feral animal is a metaphor for other dilemmas without easy answers. To be in touch with the earth in the modern sense can be to have a bond with feral plants or animals after all.
The family in the book is warm yet flawed.
So much to love
December 23, 2015
Tod's father has abandoned the family and moved back to England. Tod's mom has lost her job and moved herself and her three kids back in with her mother while she pursues her dreams of being a stand-up comedian.
Tod is having a hard time in school, a hard time with a gang called the breakers, and just a hard time, in general, adjusting to his new life in the country. His one respite is going to a nearby quarry and searching for the foxes that live there.
As Tod's life becomes more difficult, his trips to the quarry become more mystical and his time with the fox becomes an oasis in his crazy, upside down life.
Will Tod choose a life of the wild or his family?
This one is better for the young YA because of some of the incidents and situations. It's also for those that liked The Lady and the Tiger or The Never-Ending Story.
Tod is having a hard time in school, a hard time with a gang called the breakers, and just a hard time, in general, adjusting to his new life in the country. His one respite is going to a nearby quarry and searching for the foxes that live there.
As Tod's life becomes more difficult, his trips to the quarry become more mystical and his time with the fox becomes an oasis in his crazy, upside down life.
Will Tod choose a life of the wild or his family?
This one is better for the young YA because of some of the incidents and situations. It's also for those that liked The Lady and the Tiger or The Never-Ending Story.
March 18, 2014
Didn't like the ending at all.
April 3, 2009
This is shit.
Read
July 23, 2011Another great YA novel by Rubenstein. She has a great imagination and is a gem to read.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews