The Fox on the Swing (written by Evelina Daciute and illustrated by Ausra Kiudrulaite) is pleasant and surreal, or pleasantly surreal. It struck me as European magical realism for kids: strange stuff happens, it isn’t explained (but is often fun), and life goes on.
To give a somewhat clearer summary…Paul (a human boy) and his family live in a tall tree. His father flies people and things places on a small helicopter; his mother makes (usually orange) pottery. Every day she sent Paul to the bakery to buy rolls, but some days, when he’s taking the long way home near the park, he sees a fox on a swing. The fox talks Paul into giving her one of the rolls, and they become friends. They talk, and the fox shares moods, stories, and advice. One of these exchanges is about how things will change and the fox will someday not be at the park because she’ll need to be somewhere else.
Then Paul’s father gets a new job and the family has to relocate. This leaves to clashes, between desires and world views: Paul says he’s happy where he is, and his father argues “There’s no such thing as being happy enough” and “Things can always get better.” Paul consults the fox one last time, then has to move. Paul once again walks to a bakery (a different one) from his new home, and one day, on his way home, he again encounters the fox on a swing. They swing together again, and talk at length about what happiness is.
All is new, and all is the same, and all the images are vivid, often orange, and fully of energy.
The book doesn’t explain itself. The fox could be a friend, an adult friend, a senior citizen, a fox, or, I suppose, imaginary, but the connection between Paul and the fox is not just real, it is profound and needed: a place for a kid to be himself.
