![]() ![]() The story is simple – Tom is beguiled by the beauty of this unusual fox, who is entirely black. I doubt that Byars plagiarised the book, but the similarities amused me. In both, a certain midnight aberration becomes an obsession, and changes the stay into a much happier event Peter is written to from a distance, and becomes an accomplice in the discovery. ![]() In both, a boy named Tom must reluctantly go and stay with his aunt and uncle, and greatly misses a boy called Peter. The premise has a surprising number of similarities with Philippa Pearce’s much-loved children’s book Tom’s Midnight Garden, published ten years earlier. But now I have read, and very much enjoyed, this sweet and touching tale of a holiday on a farm. Yet again, having only read Enid Blyton for years on end means that I don’t know that much about other children’s classics. ![]() I hadn’t heard of it, but I think The Midnight Fox is well known in some circles. And shortly afterwards Betsy Byars’ The Midnight Fox (1968) arrived. Well, I was very touched, and – not one to turn down a book recommendation or, indeed, a book – said yespleasethankyouverymuch. A little while ago I got a very nice email from someone called Vicki, saying how much she enjoyed reading Stuck-in-a-Book, and asking if she could send me one of the books she loved as a sort of thank you. ![]()
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