Like Eeyore (with a temper), Ereth will be a source of amusement for his dark moods and gloomy outlook. Though the tale is not free of conveniently overheard conversations and other contrivances, it generally moves along at a good clip, builds to a dramatic climax, comes to a joyful close, and features a lively mix of characters and moods. The kits’ errant but much-admired dad, appropriately named “Bounder,” checks in after a full week to boot Ereth out too self-centered to care about anyone else, he abandons the kits again the next day. Avi makes Ereth’s sometimes-hilarious efforts to mother the hyperactive young foxes both the story’s centerpiece and a sharp commentary on absent fathers. Of course, he finds a delicious gift and a much-relieved troop of deer mice waiting. Back he comes a month later, having survived heavy snows, hunters’ traps, a predatory fisher’s attack, and a promise made to a dying fox to care for her three kits. Spouting lines like “squirrel-splat soup” and “phooey and fried salamander spit with a side order of rat ribbon,” Ereth stomps away from his musty log convinced that neighbor Poppy and her large family have forgotten his birthday. The gruff but good-hearted porcupine of Avi’s Poppy tales gets an adventure of his own, along with plenty of opportunities to fulminate.
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