This was by and far the hardest (in the best way) middle grade novel I have ever read. The emotions were flying and you'll bet I cried my eyes out. My heart was both broken & healed multiple times in this book. Peter had raised Pax, a fox, from kithood but the two become separated. Sara Pennypacker alternates between Pax & Peter's journeys, each of them trying to find the other all the while a war is raging, threatening each of their communities and lives. The prose is deep and offers its reader a meditation on humanity: love & anger, war & peace, wild & domestic. Ultimately, this story is about more than just friendship. It's about love and all of its complexities.