Fox

In the book Fox, the story of relationships is told metaphorically by author Margaret Wild and illustrator Ron Brooks. Readers encounter several tragic situations, complicated breakups, betrayal, and attempts at redemption. These are portrayed through three characters, a magpie and a dog, both disabled by a forest fire, and a fox, driven by the need to win, destroy, and assert itself. A sad ending might seem inevitable, yet the author leaves both readers and characters a glimmer of hope for a happy outcome.

In Australia, the picture book Fox, first published in 2006, is very well-known and, despite its symbolic nature, is deeply tied to the homeland. The story is set in the Australian bush and desert, and the main characters are animals typical of this continent. The illustrations are painted in oil, with the artist using a very limited palette. The entire world of the book consists of shades of ochre, black, and gray, the colors of the desert and ash, which perfectly reflect the emotional landscape of the characters. The text is also handwritten in a font Ron Brooks designed specifically for this book, written with his left hand by scratching the letters at different angles, emphasizing the sharpness and unevenness of the characters’ inner lives.

According to Ron Brooks, creating the book can be as painful a process as giving birth. He has to read the text millions of times, redo the illustrations, and each new book demands a fresh approach, forcing him to invent new techniques repeatedly. Work on Fox took three full years. First, he conceptualized, then painted countless layers in gouache, oil, and varnish, and finally scratched in the text.

In Australia, the book won a number of national literary awards and was recognized internationally. In the United Kingdom it was shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal, and in Germany it received the prestigious Deutsche Jugendliteraturpreis. Over his 40-year career as an artist and illustrator, Ron Brooks has illustrated dozens of books and three times received the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Picture Book of the Year Award.