Fantastic Mr. Fox [Hardcover]

Roald Dahl (Author), Quentin Blake (Illustrator)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Random House Childrens Books (June 1, 2002)
• ASIN: B001ID6VM4
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (112 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,311,971 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Roald Dahl (1916-1990) was born in Llandaff, South Wales, and went to Repton School in England. His parents were Norwegian, so holidays were spent in Norway. As he explains in Boy, he turned down the idea of university in favor of a job that would take him to"a wonderful faraway place. In 1933 he joined the Shell Company, which sent him to Mombasa in East Africa. When World War II began in 1939 he became a fighter pilot and in 1942 was made assistant air attaché in Washington, where he started to write short stories. His first major success as a writer for children was in 1964. Thereafter his children's books brought him increasing popularity, and when he died children mourned the world over, particularly in Britain where he had lived for many years.The BFG is dedicated to the memory of Roald Dahls eldest daughter, Olivia, who died from measles when she was seven - the same age at which his sister had died (fron appendicitis) over forty years before. Quentin Blake, the first Children's Laureate of the United Kingdom, has illustrated most of Roald Dahl's children's books.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What's NOT to love? :), October 16, 2000

By 

Joseph Ekaitis "author of Collinsfort Village" (Southern California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fantastic Mr. Fox (School & Library Binding)

He's a chicken-stealing thief and a cellar-raiding rogue. He's also a loving husband and a caring father. He's even kind to rabbits. Oh, and he's a fox. What more could you want in a leading man?

Roald Dahl's "Fantastic Mr. Fox" tells the story of how Mr. Fox and his family fend off an assault by farmers Boggis, Bunce and Bean. Losing his tail to the farmers' bullets, Mr. Fox tries to wait out the farmers' vigil but Boggis, Bunce and Bean have other plans. They try to dig up the Fox family's den with steam shovels, forcing Fox and family ever farther underground. Derided by the townspeople for flattening a whole mountain just to catch a fox, the farmers decide to see who can last longer, them or Mr. Fox.

Mr. Fox, on the other hand, comes up with a brilliant way out, better left to be related by Dahl himself. Like any well-written children's story, "Fantastic Mr. Fox" is several notches above the average simplistic picture book but not so long that it can't be read in its entirety as a bedtime story. Since it's not dumbed down for young readers, it remains a favorite of adult readers as well.

35 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic, funny and not a little cruel., September 19, 2001

By 

darragh o'donoghue - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fantastic Mr. Fox (Paperback)

There seems to have been a major shift in children's literature recently, thanks, of course, to the pre-eminence of Harry Potter. The latter is a hero parents can be proud of - bespectacled, middle-class, studious: the subtext is education is fun, enlightening and empowering.

The major children's writer before JK Rowling was Roald Dahl, who boasted few of these virtues, offering children cruel wit, and a morbid, often murderous mistrust of parents, adults, education and authority in general. He also implied that children could be malevolent and destructive. Parents hated him - I had to discover Dahl through friends; my mum bought me Enid Blyton. There was always the thrilling feeling that you were doing something illicit or conspiratorial reading Roald Dahl.

The hero of 'Fantastic Mr Fox' is a thief, a violater of property and business, and a murderer and torturer of animals, traits unlikely to endear him to the English middle classes. On the other hand, he rejoices in family values, still endearingly in love with his wife, and a great father. Under impossible odds, he tries to save his family and a host of other animals from the cruelty of three vile farmers, Boggis, Bunce and Bean, who are sick of the varmint's nocturnal sorties for their produce.

First they try to shoot him, but only pepper his tail (a deliciously gruesome episode). Next they dig into his tunnel, but he can dig faster. They use huge mechanical diggers, turning a hill into a valley. They try to starve him, surrounding the area with weapon-wielding minions.

The story of 'Fox' is very simple with few twists and turns. The impact, however, can be traumatic, and not just for young children - I read this to my wife (as you do), and we both got very anxious for our heroes, faced with the terrifying industrial might of the farmers. The irony of the story is ecological - while trying to save a few goods for business, the farmers nearly destroy the countryside and an entire animal network; the fox can only do what is natural, which is steal and kill (to which Dahl is faithful with admirable unsentimentality). The image of the three farmers waiting, possibly forever, at the hole for the fox to starve, is chilling and close to Beckett.

Once again, Dahl gets a great deal of pleasure in frightening his young audience, and his way with alliterative insults is as delightful as ever, while Quentin Blake's scribbles, though not part of the original book, are now so synonymous with Dahl's world, it's impossible to imagine it without them.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Mr. Fox, July 26, 2000

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Fantastic Mr. Fox (School & Library Binding)

I recommend this book because it's funny. I liked the drawings by Roald Dahl because they are silly. Boggis, Bunce and Bean are three mean farmers trying to kill Mr. Fox because he keeps on taking their food. Mr. Fox out-smarts them by making them think he is one place when he is another. I especially liked when Mr. Fox and his friends had a feast because no one can hurt them, and I can't believe that the farmers are still waiting for Mr. Fox to come out. (They are probably skeletons and bones by now!) For anybody who didn't read this book, I think you should read it.