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TINY FOX AND GREAT BOAR by Natalia Kreczmar

TINY FOX AND GREAT BOAR

There

translated by Natalia Kreczmar by Berenika Kolomycka ; illustrated by Berenika Kolomycka

Pub Date: April 12th, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-63715-020-7
Publisher: Oni Press

Two wild critters navigate seasons along with the ups and downs of an unexpected friendship.

Tiny Fox lives in a valley with just an apple tree for companionship, and, “like most small animals, he went about his day believing he was happy.” All that changes when Great Boar arrives and plops down beneath the tree. Perturbed, Tiny Fox now has to share everything. When he leaves for a short time and returns, however, he discovers Great Boar is gone and a newfound loneliness has settled in his place. Happily, the two are reunited in the first story in this collection (“Here”), and as the seasons change (“Together” takes place during fall and winter, snowy weather continues in “Apart,” and “There” takes the pals into spring), the two learn to trust one another and, when called upon to do so, trust themselves as well. Watercolors capable of evoking not simply the splendor of a new dawn, but also this little book’s emotional pitch are wielded with surgical skill. The smallest dab of a line beneath an eye can indicate remorse or, more often, worry. This storyline provides an elegant bridge between picture books and graphic novels; for fans of similarly early, gentle comics like Fox and Rabbit by Beth Ferry (2020) and Bug Boys by Laura Knetzger (2020).

An early comic drills home the lesson that you never know how much you need someone until you find a friend.

(Graphic early reader. 6-9)