Swedish author/illustrator Cecilia Heikkilä's The Slightly Spooky Tale of Fox and Mole is a lightly gothic tale that illustrates the dual perils of taking more than we give and not asking for what we need.
Fox and Mole are countryside neighbors by the sea, which is a popular summer destination for city folks whom Fox plies with homemade cookies, jam, and tea while Mole "join[s] in all the fun." Then autumn arrives. The visitors leave and Mole comes round to Fox's every evening to sit "in Fox's best chair" and enjoy a cozy spread and a storybook, The Legend of the Scuffling Monster. It's the tale of a racoon "transformed" into something monstrous after too many nights of solitude. Eventually, Mole eats all of Fox's provisions, leaving "only cabbages and an old jar of pickled herring" in Fox's pantry. When Mole forgets Fox's birthday, "something thorny [finds] its way to Fox's heart," and Fox, too, is transformed.
Heikkilä gives an expert demonstration of the power of foreshadowing. On the first autumn evening at Fox's house, not only does Mole interrupt the story but also "spill[s] cookie crumbs over the chair and the rug and the table." Fox finishes the evening's reading and wants a cookie, but Mole has "already licked this one."
Heikkilä's digitally edited watercolor, gouache, and pastel illustrations track her narrative's theme of transformation perfectly, primarily through color. Bright reds, lovely sky blues, and pure emerald greens vanish from her spreads as Mole and Fox's friendship tips off balance, replaced by cooler-toned creams, browns, and olives. Fox also changes even before the ultimate transformation, whiskers and fur taking on a rougher, more haggard appearance, ears flattening, eyes widening, gaze vacant and haunted.
With a title like The Slightly Spooky Tale of Fox and Mole, adults will want to know just how spooky this picture book really is. Children who have already met Little Red Riding Hood's lupine grandmother aren't likely to be more frightened by these scuffling monsters. Heikkilä's narrative seems informed by Aesop's fable of the ant and the grasshopper, but her moral takes a notably different direction: only by restoring the balance of mutual care in their friendship do Fox and Mole set each other to rights again. That's not spooky at all. --Stephanie Appell, freelance reviewer
Shelf Talker: This lightly gothic picture book for readers seeking a "slightly spooky" story illustrates the dual perils of taking more than we give and not asking for what we need.