Informational Resources:

Author Information:

Author Information-

Author’s website: http://www.cmheidicker.com/

C.M. Heidicker virtual author visit:

http://www.cmheidicker.com/blog/2020/3/15/virtual-author-visit-scary-stories-for-young-foxes

Interview with C.M. Heiciker from Spooky Middle Grade: https://spookymiddlegrade.com/2019/11/03/interview-with-christian-mckay-heidicker-author-of-scary-stories-for-young-foxes/

Illustrator Information-

Illustrator’s website: https://junyiwu.com/

Activities & Resources:

Foxes

DK facts about foxes:

https://www.dkfindout.com/us/animals-and-nature/dogs/red-fox/

National Geographic Kids facts about foxes: https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/red-fox/

Squam Lakes Fox Den live cam (scroll down to see screenshots of the live cam when the foxes were active):

https://explore.org/livecams/zen-den/squam-lakes-fox-den

Beatrix Potter

Learn about Beatrix Potter:

https://facts.kiddle.co/Beatrix_Potter

One of Beatrix Potter’s characters, Mr. Tod, is also in Scary Stories for Young Foxes. Read the original Tale of Mr. Tod: https://sites.google.com/site/beatrixpotterstories/the-tales-of-beatrix-potter/mr-tod

Scary stories

Scary Stories for Young Foxes is based on classic horror tales. Learn more about the characters and stories included in the book.

Dracula:

https://facts.kiddle.co/Dracula

Zombies:

https://kids.britannica.com/kids/article/zombie/600661

The Monkey’s Paw:

https://www.scaryforkids.com/the-monkeys-paw/

Art Activities

The illustrator, Junyi Wu, used pencil to create the illustrations. How to shade with pencil (7:15): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQl0em2JKLI

How to make foxes with dried orange slices:

https://www.redtedart.com/how-to-make-dried-orange-slices-fox-ornaments/

MakerSpace Activities:

Design a humane trap for foxes. Sketch your design for a trap that can contain a fox without hurting it.

One of Uly’s front paws is smaller than the other and curls against his body, making it difficult to run and hunt. Create something Uly could use to help him move.

Write your own scary story. Use this guide to help you: http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson407/write-scary2.pdf

Draw Mia and Uly’s path through the forest. Use paper and Ozobots or another robot to show their journey, or use Google Drawings (or something similar).

Discussion Questions:

Why do you think the author chose to use foxes as the main characters? Why not humans or another animal?

Do the foxes’ sibling relationships remind you of human sibling relationships? Why or why not?

What do the foxes mean when they describe Miss Vix’s smell as “yellow?” Do you associate certain smells with colors? Why or why not?

Why does the author call the trap used on Mia’s mother a “silver root?”

What does Miss Potter mean when she says, “I’m going to make it so that you live forever?” (page 89). Do you think her job as an author has anything to do with it? Why?

Why do think the animals weren’t able to understand what Miss Potter was saying outside, but could understand her when they got into the house? How did pulling a bit of fur from the animals change them?

Why do you think the author chose to use a real person (Beatrix Potter) as a character?

Miss Potter says “animals don’t have feelings” (page 114). Do you agree or disagree? Why?

What animal do you think Uly and Mia eat that “wasn’t quite a frog, and it wasn’t a lizard, and it had gills like a fish?” (page 146) Why do you think that?

On page 150, the storyteller says, “it’s a dangerous thing to start caring for someone else. Now they had two foxes to look after instead of one.” Do you agree or disagree with the storyteller? Why?

Uly thinks he “wasn’t heroic. Just lucky” when he helped Mia escape from Miss Potter’s house. What do you think? Was he a hero or not? Why? (page 160)

Does the Golgathursh remind you of any other scary stories or legends you have heard or read? What do they have in common? How are they different?

How do the landscape and the animals Uly encounters change as he goes on his journey from forest to swamp?

Why do you think the author has Mia always mispronounce the Golgathursh’s name?

Why do you think Mr. Scratch is so mean, especially to Uly? What do you think Mr. Scratch’s past was like?

Does “The Paw” remind you of any other scary stories or legends you have heard or read? What do they have in common? How are they different?

What would you have done if you found a den full of abandoned fox kits?

What did you think about the ending? Were you surprised? Why or why not?

How do the illustrations enhance the story?

Why do you think the author chose to have foxes listening to the stories about other foxes? How did having one fox leave after each story fit into the plot of the book?

Book Talk Teasers:

Watch the TBA book trailer for Scary Stories for Young Foxes.

Read the Readers Theater for Scary Stories for Young Foxes.

Read Alikes:

Foxes

Appelt, Kathi, Maybe a Fox. An otherworldly fox is born to help eleven-year-old Jules, who is grieving over the death of her sister. (NoveList Plus)

Pennypacker, Sara. Pax. When his father enlists in the military and makes him return his beloved pet fox to the wild, Peter, who has been sent to live with his grandfather hundreds of miles away, embarks on a journey filled with astonishing discoveries in order to be reunited with his fox. (NoveList Plus)

Scary Stories

Arden, Catherine. Small Spaces. After eleven-year-old Ollie's school bus mysteriously breaks down on a field trip, she has to take a trip through scary woods, and must use all of her wits to survive. She must stick to small spaces. (NoveList Plus)

Hahn, Mary Downing. Guest: A Changeling Tale. Young Mollie traverses eerie, perilous lands to retrieve her baby brother, Thomas, from the Kinde Folke, malicious sprites who snatched him and left a hideous changeling in his place. (NoveList Plus)

Johnson, Hal. Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods: 20 Chilling Tales from the Wilderness. Collects illustrated tales of the strange and terrifying wild creatures living in the Lumberwoods, including the shadow-eating snoligoster and the speedy hoop snake. (NoveList Plus)

Reviews:

Scary Stories for Young Foxes. Heidicker, Christian McKay. Holt. 2019.

Booklist

Scary Stories for Young Foxes (Starred)

Heidicker, Christian McKay (author). Illus. by Junyi Wu.

Aug. 2020. 40p. Lee & Low/Children’s Book, $16.99 (9781250181428). Grades 3-6.

REVIEW. First published August 2019 (Booklist).

Heidicker (Attack of the 50-Foot Wallflower, 2018) deftly transitions from YA to middle-grade fiction with his account of seven fox kits on the prowl for scary bedtime stories. Cute, right? Only if you find the anxious cowering of both kids and kits endearing. But for a certain type of reader—those lost in a battered copy of Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark—this is exactly the kind of book they’re hunting for. The vulpine siblings venture into Antler Wood to find Bog Cavern, a place, their mother has cautioned, where an old storyteller lives who will tell them “a story so frightening it will put the white in your tail.” This is no exaggeration: the storyteller doles out two tales of two kits, Mia and Uly, who endure different horrors, from injuries to hunters’ traps to rabid animals, eventually bringing

their narratives together. Throughout, the stories are punctuated with unsettling black-and-white illustrations and pauses to momentarily shift the focus back to the original seven kits, effectively building suspense and providing momentary relief for the storyteller’s audience. As the tensions and dangers build, the siblings’ numbers dwindle as they slip away for the comfort of their den. Kids able to brave the harrowing adventures of Mia and Uly are in for a chilling roller coaster of a read. — Julia Smith

Reprinted with Permission of Booklist https://www.booklistonline.com/