Fox, Bird and Me

A girl looks out of the window, bored. She’s searching for something, even though she doesn’t know what. Just when she has decided there’s nothing to be found, she hears wings flap. She goes outside, curious, and meets Bird and Fox. She follows them through a hole in the wall and discovers that there's a world bursting with colour outside of her austere, colourless world. It’s the start of a unique friendship with Bird and Fox. The arrival of a bird of prey, which injures Bird, briefly seems to mark the end of both the game and the friendship. But even though Bird can no longer fly, Fox, Bird, and the girl find each other in a new way.

Few words are needed in this gentle story. The use of colour is symbolic: without Fox and Bird the illustrations are grey and dull; with their arrival, orange, yellow, red, green, and blue tones seep into the book. The composition and the perspective occasionally seem rather cartoon-like. ‘Fox, Bird and Me’ is a hopeful tale about the power of friendship and it shows how we can overcome difficulties with the help of others. But it can also be read as a book that calls for a revaluation of nature whilst also paying attention to mental wellbeing: a book about life itself.