Pax, written by Sara Pennypacker, published in 2016, is a heartwarming story about a boy who is searching for his pet fox amidst the outbreak of war. The story begins with Peter riding in the car with his father when the latter pulls over to the side of the road. With a green army toy in his hand, Peter throws it into the woods, and his pet fox, Pax, chases after it. But unbeknownst to Pax, the car drives off, leaving him stranded in the woods.
Since Pax had been raised by Peter ever since he was a pup, he doesn’t know how to survive in the wild on his own. Soon after, Peter’s father joins the army, leaving Peter to stay with his grandfather some 300 miles away from where Pax was released. But Peter begins to worry, and he sets off on his own to find Pax at the place where he had last seen him. During his hike, he injures his foot, and unable to travel much farther, he is helped by a woman named Vola, who lives on a farm.
A veteran of the army, Vola survives off grid and without electricity–teaching Peter lessons about perseverance and how to survive with the resources he has. Meanwhile, Pax meets a pair of sibling foxes: Bristle and Runt, who are both cautious of humans after losing their parents to them. Pax struggles to catch food, but with the siblings’ help, he manages to survive in the wilderness. An older wolf named Gray decides to join Pax to find Peter, and so they set off on a journey across the wilderness into army territory.
What’s fascinating about the book is how these two storylines parallel each other until they coincide toward the end. In Peter’s case, he learns to walk on crutches as his foot heals, while Pax is met with obstacles when he finds a camp of soldiers laying wires in the ground in the forest, which poses a threat to anyone or anything that crosses it.
The juxtaposition of the two storylines becomes more tense as the distance between them closes. In both cases, Peter and Pax begin to grow in ways that are unique: Pax becomes more adapted to living in the wild, and Peter becomes wiser about the realities of life. Toward the end, Peter and Pax are no longer the same, and as they’ve impacted and helped those around them, the novel leaves us with this question: are they better off on their separate paths?
Fallton Havenstonne 