The Slightly Spooky Tale of Fox and Mole

In The Slightly Spooky Tale of Fox and Mole, Fox and Mole are friends who like to have tea together, while Fox reads stories. One day, Fox reads a spooky tale, scaring both of them as they worry about a scuffling monster coming for them. Later, Fox is upset that Mole seems to be eating all his food, but he never invites Fox to his house. His anger builds and Fox starts to transform...
What I liked: The illustrations were great, I loved the color scheme and the characters. If I was a kid, this book would have drawn me to it on those alone. I like the idea of Fox transforming in his anger and becomes the thing he was scared of in the first place.
What left me wanting more: I feel that in one or two places, the story might need some adjusting as it doesn't really add to the plot, but once we get into it, the story is enjoyable.
I feel this would appeal to kids who like spooky tales. It is easy to read and fun to look at. This could be a good introduction to scarier stories for young children.

In this story, Fox and Mole live on their own in two houses beside each other. Mole is carefree and careless, while Fox is responsible and self-sacrificing. Fox and Mole read a spooky story about a raccoon who turns into a scuffling monster, together as fall comes, yet Mole keeps interrupting and eating all of Fox’s cookies. Due to Mole’s behavior, Fox gets angry and begins to transform himself.
What I Liked: This book opens by introducing you to our characters, Fox and Mole, and their specific characteristics. This book also invites you into Fox’s home, showing you the places that he share with mole every day.


While this story is recommended to children ages 4 and up, the more appropriate audience would be 6 and up due to the creature that Fox transforms into and the structure of the book. While this is a picture book, it does contain short chapters, which is great to introduce older children to chapter books while not taking away the fun of a picture book. Each chapter of this book contains a few pages and each page has several sentences.


Fox’s transformation adds a sense of terror to this story as he is consumed and becomes a creature that doesn’t have any reasoning skills and is set on feeding. This moment of the story does become a little scary for younger readers as Fox transforms into a dark creature with yellow eyes that is quite large. The expressions on Fox’s face are intriguing as he gets angrier and angrier with Mole as Mole is more and more inconsiderate with Fox’s belongings and his feelings.


Final Verdict: The Slightly Spooky Tale of Fox and Mole is a thrilling and spooky tale that teaches the importance of caring for others and being considerate of others’ feelings. This book highlights how your actions impact others and why we need to be mindful of the way we act around our friends.