Daan Remmerts de Vries

Fox Is a Bad Guy

In this book, Daan Remmerts de Vries plays a beautifully ironic, ambiguous game with the sly and cunning character traditionally attributed to the fox. This irony can be seen mainly in the interaction between the words and the pictures.

A dodo ringing Fox’s doorbell to collect money for endangered animals is funny enough in itself. But the sanctimonious look on his face, combined with his confession that the money is for himself, makes it doubly funny. Who’s the crafty one here?

This question also arises when Fox invites the dodo to come in and rest for a moment. Later, when Fox serves his friends Badger and Raccoon a big, round roasted chicken, the reader fears the worst. Where’s the dodo? Inside Fox? Or is that just based on suspicion and prejudice? Remmerts de Vries turns out to be a master of deception in this amusing story about a foxy bad guy — or is he?

Children's books
Fox Is a Bad Guy
Original title
Missing title
Author
Daan Remmerts de Vries

In his books Daan Remmerts de Vries (b. 1962) humorously holds up a mirror to parents and educators, but also to the children themselves.