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Hardback

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English
Groundwood Books
01 September 2013
A graphic novel about bullying, body image and the transformative power of fiction.

Helene has been inexplicably ostracized by the girls who were once her friends. Her school life is full of whispers and lies - Helene weighs 216; she smells like BO. Her loving mother is too tired to be any help. Fortunately, Helene has one consolation, Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre.

Helene identifies strongly with Jane's tribulations, and when she is lost in the pages of this wonderful book, she is able to ignore her tormentors. But when Helene is humiliated on a class trip in front of her entire grade, she needs more than a fictional character to see herself as a person deserving of laughter and friendship.

Leaving the outcasts' tent one night, Helene encounters a fox, a beautiful creature with whom she shares a moment of connection. But when Suzanne Lipsky frightens the fox away, insisting that it must be rabid, Helene's despair becomes even more pronounced:now she believes that only a diseased and dangerous creature would ever voluntarily approach her. But then a new girl joins the outcasts' circle, Geraldine, who does not even appear to notice that she is in danger of becoming an outcast herself. And before long Helene realizes that the less time she spends worrying about what the other girls say is wrong with her, the more able she is to believe that there is nothing wrong at all.

This emotionally honest and visually stunning graphic novel reveals the casual brutality of which children are capable, but also assures readers that redemption can be found through connecting with another, whether the other is a friend, a fictional character or even, amazingly, a fox.

Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.6 Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker in a text.
By:  
Illustrated by:   Isabelle Arsenault
Translated by:   , ,
Imprint:   Groundwood Books
Country of Publication:   Canada
Dimensions:   Height: 285mm,  Width: 215mm,  Spine: 12mm
Weight:   662g
ISBN:   9781554983605
ISBN 10:   1554983606
Pages:   101
Publication Date:  
Recommended Age:   From 10 to 14 years
Audience:   Children/juvenile ,  English as a second language
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Fanny Britt is a playwright, author and translator. She has a dozen plays to her credit. She has also translated over fifteen contemporary plays and several other works of literature. She writes children s books and has published, among others, the Felicien series with La Courte Echelle. Jane, the Fox and Me is her first graphic novel. She lives in Montreal with her family. Isabelle Arsenault is a very talented Quebec illustrator, who has garnered an impressive number of awards and international recognition. She has illustrated several books, including Le coeur de monsieur Gauguin (Governor General s Award) and My Letter to the World and Other Poems (Governor General s Award Finalist, IRA Children s Choices), and she has won the Grand Prix for illustration (Magazines du Quebec) for six years running.

Reviews for Jane, the Fox and Me

A New York Times Best Illustrated BookWinner of the Governor General's Literary Award for Children's Illustration in FrenchA Globe and Mail Best BookA New York Public Library Book for Reading and Sharing Loneliness is a language that doesn't need translation....It's a language understood by anyone who has endured the interminable wait for a Geraldine of her own. -- The New York Times Readers will be delighted to see Helene's world change as she grows up, learning to ignore the mean girls and realizing that, like Jane, she is worthy of friendship and love. -- School Library Journal , Starred Review Helene's emotional tangle is given poignant expression through Arsenault's pitch-perfect mixed-media art . . . [Her] story is sweetly comforting and compelling. -- Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books , Starred Review


  • Commended for New York Public Library Books for Reading and Sharing 2013 (United States)
  • Commended for Ontario Library Association Best Bets 2014 (Canada)
  • Winner of Governor General's Literary Award for French Language Children's Illustration 2013 (Canada)
  • Winner of Libris Award for Young Readers Book of the Year 2014 (Canada)
  • Winner of Libris Awards (Young Readers) 2014

See Also