What Happened On Fox Street (2010) - Plot & Excerpts
Mo Wren was born on the kitchen table in her home on Fox Street. Ten years later Fox Street is still her world. She can't imagine living anywhere else.With five houses on either side, Fox Street is bordered on one end by Paradise Avenue and on the other by a wooded ravine called the Green Kingdom. The Green Kingdom is one of the best things about Fox Street. Then there are the neighbors. There's a piano player, a teacher, the best burrito makers in the city, a woman who works in a funeral home, and a man who fixes things, just to name a few. Everything you need is right there on Fox Street.To Mo's dismay, things are changing on Fox Street. Developers are trying to buy up the houses on their little street and her dad is considering taking their offer. He dreams of owning a family bar where people can hang out and get a quick meal from the grill. Mo wants that for him, but she can't imagine that he'd sell their home to make it happen.Other things are changing, too. Mo's best friend Mercedes visits her grandmother every summer, but this is her last summer. Her grandmother is sick and her daughter and Mercedes' new stepfather want her to move to Cincinnati and live with them.This book is a winner. Mo Wren and Fox Street are sure to find a place is your heart. Just finished this a day ago and this is not hyperbole: What Happened on Fox Street by Tricia Springstubb. If you work with children from third grade through middle school, you should read this book and attempt to press it into their hot little hands. It made me laugh, made me think, made me cry. The author conjured beautiful, descriptive sentences that I wish I had written. You won't regret reading What Happened on Fox Street. It will grab you from the first paragraph and hold you until the last page! Mo and her five year old sister Dottie live on Fox Street (a dead end) with their dad. Mo defines her life by Fox Street: her relationships with her varyingly kookie neighbors, the rhythms of the neighborhood, and the memories people have of her dead mother. This is her universe, so when changes come, she feels threatened and must redefine both her street and herself. Through these changes—good, bad, and excruciatingly difficult—one thing sustains Mo: the possibility of someday seeing a real fox on Fox Street. Though the narrative is realistic fiction, Mo has moments wonder and awe that feel touched by whimsy and the fantastic. She faces difficult situations, such as the possibility of moving, and struggling to be both a sister and a substitute mother of her younger sister, but she emerges with wisdom and a changed view of the world. You will, too! Tricia Springstubb, you are my hero!
What do You think about What Happened On Fox Street (2010)?
We reviewed and recommended this book for girls in Brownies and Guides, ages 7 - 11 years old.
—tmoore2
Recommended MG fiction on Greenhouse Literary blog.
—Lu279
