Brownie Groundhog and the February Fox was published in 2011 by Sterling Publishing. It was written by Susan Blackaby and illustrated by Carmen Segovia.
It’s a cold day in February and the groundhog named Brownie wakes up. She peeks outside and sees her shadow. Winter’s going to continue a while longer.
In the background there’s a very hungry fox and he tries to eat Brownie. Brownie managed to avoid this and with the power of words, convinces the fox that it’s too late to eat breakfast.
Brownie and the fox kind of hang out for a while and eventually become good friends (even though the fox gets tied to a tree later).
I was a bit surprised that this book was published in 2011. The drawings have a “retro-feel” to it (I mean this in a positive way).
The nice thing about this book is the language that is used. There are lots of interesting adjective and verbs used which would be good for young learners.
The illustration are very well done. Drawing snow can be quite tricky and the illustrator does a good of making the landscape look “cold”. The only thing I wonder about with the illustrations is whether the size of the animals are correct... I’m sure they are.
In the story the groundhog manages to talk the fox out of killing her and I believe there’s a lessons for young children to learn from this. Words are powerful if we know how to use them.
Brownie Groundhog and the February Fox is an enjoyable read.
Recommended.
