Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Fantastic Mr. Fox


Plot summary from Wikipedia:

This story is about a fox named Mr Fox. At night, he steals chickens, ducks, and turkeys from three mean and wealthy farmers — Boggis, Bunce and Bean — in order to feed his family. The farmers are fed up with this and try everything to kill him. One night, they wait outside his foxhole in an attempt to ambush him. When Mr Fox emerges from his home, they fire at him but only succeed in blowing off his tail.

Determined to catch him, the farmers use spades and shovels to dig their way into the foxes' home, but Mr and Mrs Fox and their four children dig a tunnel deeper into the ground and manage to escape. The farmers even resort to using bulldozers in order to dig deeper into the ground, but to no avail.

The three men therefore decide to play a waiting game, keeping watch on the entrance to the tunnel with shotguns at the ready, while their men patrol the area to make sure the foxes do not escape.

After three days of starving, Mr Fox comes up with a plan. He and his children dig further on and end up in Boggis's number one chicken house. There they steal some chickens and depart without leaving any sign of their presence there. They also raid Bunce's storehouse of ducks, geese and vegetables and Bean's underground cellar of apple cider.

Along the way they meet Badger and other digging animals who are also starving due to the farmers' siege of the hillside. Mr Fox, feeling responsible for the whole affair, invites the other animals to a feast made from the loot and they all decide to make an underground town where they will be safe, while discreetly obtaining food from the farmers.

1 comment:

Dan Truong said...

I remember this book!!!