The fox on the swing
By Evelina Daciūtė, Aušra Kiudulaitė
Introduction by Librarian
“The Fox on the Swing” is the winner of the 2019 Mildred L. Batchelder Award. It tells a beautiful story about happiness and friendship between a little boy and a fox. With help from the fox, the boy turns his bad days into a good life lesson and shares what he has learned when going through changes in life.
The little boy, named Paul, lives with his parents in a treehouse of a big city. Every day, Paul’s mother sends him to a bakery to buy three bread rolls for the family. On his daily walk home from the bakery, he sometimes sees a fox sleeping on a swing in a park. One day, the fox asks Paul for a bread roll. Without much hesitation, he shares a roll with her. Since then, they become best friends and always stay together to share their own stories and happiness, while enjoying the rolls. Their happiness is very simple. It just lies in small things, like orange, carrot cake, marmalade, basketball, cat, etc. Paul enjoys the happy time with the fox and does not want it to end. One day, however, Paul’s father tells him that their family will move to a bigger city. It makes him very unhappy as he is forced to leave his best friend.
Even after the move, Paul does not enjoy his new life. It seems that he has trouble adjusting to it. How can Paul cope with the new changes?
At the end of the story, Paul has learned from the fox that being able to move forward will bring good things in the future, since good things always take time to know, just like having a cream-filled cake. You may not love it at the first bite as there may be little or no cream at all. However, when you keep eating, there will be more and more sweet cream and the taste will become better and better. Paul now understands that no matter ups and downs, sunshine or rain, all he needs to do is to keep going while waiting for the good things to come. He keeps his eyes open and lets happiness in. Finally, he is able to embrace changes and find happiness again. His happiness actually lies everywhere.
This story is originally published in Lithuanian, and subsequently translated all over the world for publications. If you love the story, you may also find the Chinese versions in our Hong Kong Public Libraries collection.
The little boy, named Paul, lives with his parents in a treehouse of a big city. Every day, Paul’s mother sends him to a bakery to buy three bread rolls for the family. On his daily walk home from the bakery, he sometimes sees a fox sleeping on a swing in a park. One day, the fox asks Paul for a bread roll. Without much hesitation, he shares a roll with her. Since then, they become best friends and always stay together to share their own stories and happiness, while enjoying the rolls. Their happiness is very simple. It just lies in small things, like orange, carrot cake, marmalade, basketball, cat, etc. Paul enjoys the happy time with the fox and does not want it to end. One day, however, Paul’s father tells him that their family will move to a bigger city. It makes him very unhappy as he is forced to leave his best friend.
Even after the move, Paul does not enjoy his new life. It seems that he has trouble adjusting to it. How can Paul cope with the new changes?
At the end of the story, Paul has learned from the fox that being able to move forward will bring good things in the future, since good things always take time to know, just like having a cream-filled cake. You may not love it at the first bite as there may be little or no cream at all. However, when you keep eating, there will be more and more sweet cream and the taste will become better and better. Paul now understands that no matter ups and downs, sunshine or rain, all he needs to do is to keep going while waiting for the good things to come. He keeps his eyes open and lets happiness in. Finally, he is able to embrace changes and find happiness again. His happiness actually lies everywhere.
This story is originally published in Lithuanian, and subsequently translated all over the world for publications. If you love the story, you may also find the Chinese versions in our Hong Kong Public Libraries collection.