I think we can all agree that the two most evil things a person can do is

1. Abuse children
2. Abuse animals

Well this book chose to revolve their story around both, and for a majority of this book I was a bit mortified by just how cruel this book was to an eleven-year old fox boy. I understand that the cruelty exists to juxtapose his good heart and the family he will eventually find in the end of the book, and I also understand that cruelty is a common plot point in stories to act as a catalyst that permits the main character to leave and start their grand adventure. However, for some reason this book really hit all the spots that made it feel exceptionally cruel....all while being written in lovely British prose. It's moments like these where I realize that I am my mother's daughter and I just don't like to see people being mean to each other.

Beyond that major point I struggled with, I do want to say that I still enjoyed this book. I went into this anticipating that I would have a cozy reading vibe. And it's definitely there. It's an imaginative story that shines thanks to its quirks and lovely prose. The prose is very Dickensian, but in a very approachable, accessible manner for young readers. There are such warm characters who really shine as they help Arthur along his journey. I really loved kind hearted little Arthur and his best friend Trinket. I didn't love that their story separated them for the majority of the story, but the ending really made everything better for everyone in the end. Overall, I think you could still classify this as a 'cozy read', despite the difficult beginning.

content warning: as mentioned before there is explicit abuse to orphan children that are animals, also racism & slavery - this may be an incorrect classification, but I'm calling it such due to the fact that any 'groundling' (bipedal animals) are sent to work in slave labor and are segregated from the humans.

Charming and a delight! This would make a great read-aloud for a family that loves fantasy and doesn't mind some scary bits.

I absolutely judged this book by its cover because the cover is beautiful. The story is very sweet and emotional, but the characters don't have a lot of development, and I felt that the plot didn't really start until the last fourth of the book. I wasn't super engaged, sadly, but this is a story for small children. Personally, I believe that our children deserve excellent stories, fleshed out worlds, and developed characters, but this story had a good message and some solid basics. (Also this one had a huge misprint where it skipped pages 292 to 325 and replaced them with a repeat of 265 to 292)

I wanted to finish it and find out what happened but at the same time I didn't feel invested in the outcome. I think it could have been told in half the words.

I struggle with this one. It was highly recommended by my former children's lit professor, so it hurts to give it an unenthusiastic review.

It's a story about an orphaned groundling - a cute mix of child and fuzzy animal. Of course, they are horribly oppressed and discriminated against. The protagonist is a fox groundling, and he lives in a very cruel orphanage, oppressed by a shrill red-wigged woman. He goes by Thirteen, his orphan number, until he makes his first friend and she dubs him Arthur.

So Arthur and his pal Trinket manage to continue surviving and even escape the horrendous orphanage. But their life doesn't get easier, and when they separate, Arthur's life keeps getting worse, and worse, and worse and yes, even worse. It's very Oliver Twist-y but somehow even more depressing. It's pretty unbearable, actually, until about 85% through the book. Now I loved Oliver Twist when I read it as a kid, but this book's protagonist is so much more downtrodden that it was painful to read. Arthur does nothing to try to get out of his situation, and feebly reacts to the horrors around him. He's a lucky little bastard to be able to pull through in the end (as this is a children's book), and it's all thanks to his friends.

I loved Oliver Twist because he had agency, hope, and was a lovely character who was supported by interesting people and city life. This one is a lukewarm mix of Annie and Oliver that yes, has a lovely ending and is a tale of resilience, and some nice bits about music, but it's really not worth the 300+ pages of horribleness, unless you're a glutton for self-punishment. At least, not worth it for me. I'm honestly relieved to be done with it.

I have mixed feelings about this book. It was a really good story, but I don't think I was quite prepared for just how dark and depressing it would be. I think it was just that my timing for reading this was a bit off, otherwise I'm sure I would have loved it a whole lot more.

Abandoned this one.
Felt too much like a patchwork of a lot of other books.