Leila and the Blue Fox

Winner of the 2023 Wainwright Prize for Children's Writing on Nature & Conservation!

'A captivating tale that glistens with wonder. Leila and Fox will always have a home in my heart' Sophie Anderson

'This is an extraordinary book - wild and beautiful and perfect' Katya Balen

Come with an Arctic fox on a breathtaking journey ... an enthralling story from the bestselling, award-winning creators of Julia and the Shark. With dazzling blue and black illustrations, this is a perfect gift for 9+ fans of The Last Bear and A Wolf Called Wander.

Fox wakes, and begins to walk. She crosses ice and snow, over mountains and across frozen oceans, encountering bears and birds beneath the endless daylight of an Arctic summer, navigating a world that is vast, wild and wondrous.

Meanwhile, Leila embarks on a journey of her own - finding her way to the mother who left her. On a breathtaking journey across the sea, Leila rediscovers herself and the mother she thought she'd lost, with help from a determined little fox.

Based on the true story of an Arctic fox who walked from Norway to Canada in seventy-six days, a distance of two thousand miles, this compelling, emotional and beautifully illustrated story is the perfect gift for 9+ readers.

Praise for Julia and the Shark:

'A tale of courage, understanding and compassion' The Observer

'Julia and the Shark is deep, beautiful and true. The art shines and the writing soars. A classic from cover to cover' Eoin Colfer

'A truly beautiful book, with text and illustrations in perfect harmony. A book to treasure!' Jacqueline Wilson

Beautiful and moving, LEILA AND THE BLUE FOX delicately explores themes of migration, freedom and belonging, through a captivating tale that glistens with wonder. Leila and Fox will always have a home in my heart Sophie Anderson
This is an extraordinary book - wild and beautiful and perfect. The mess and tangle of humanity is so brilliantly contrasted with the wild spirit of nature Katya Balen
Leila and the Blue Fox really is a thing of beauty both inside and out A.F. Steadman, author of SKANDAR
Powerful and moving Countryfile Magazine

Kiran Millwood Hargrave (Author)

Kiran Millwood Hargrave is an award-winning, bestselling novelist. Her debut story for children The Girl of Ink & Stars won the Waterstones Children's Book Prize, and the British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year. Her work has been short- and long-listed for numerous major prizes including the Costa Award and the CILIP Carnegie Award, and her novel Julia and the Shark, illustrated by Tom de Freston, was shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize and named Waterstones Children's Gift of the Year. She's a graduate of both Oxford and Cambridge Universities, and lives in Oxford with her husband and cats, in a house between a river and a forest.

Tom de Freston (Illustrator)

Kiran Millwood Hargrave and Tom de Freston met in 2009, when Kiran was a student and Tom was artist-in-residence at Cambridge University. They have been a couple and collaborators ever since, but Julia and the Shark is their first novel. Kiran is the award-winning, bestselling author of stories including The Girl of Ink & Stars, The Way Past Winter, and The Deathless Girls, and Tom is making his illustrative debut having worked as an acclaimed artist for many years. They live in Oxford with their rescue cat Luna, in a house between a river and a forest.

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