The Fox on the Swing was created by Evelina Daciute and Ausra Kiudulaite. This creation of theirs has made the award scene say it has something about it that earned it the 2019 Batchelder Award. This winner, originally published in Lithuanian as “Laime Yra Lape,” is obviously not a book that was written in English first. You can feel the non-Western flow to the writing style. There is an obvious feeling of a translation, but everything does work as the translation was not choppy as sometimes they can be.
The story is very much a combination of a modern theme with a classical feel to it as well. On the surface it is a story about a young man moving, but deeper into the story, it is a story about growing up. It is philosophical and a bit abstract. Using orange to symbolize the “good things” of the child’s life (the orange pottery of his mother, the orange fox, the orange helicopter) also makes things a bit abstract. But at the same time, this abstractness is a contradiction to the obviousness of the story. It is obviously a story about moving, about growing up, and learning that things change.
I would say that this is not meant for the younger child. There is not a lot of Western “flashy adventure” as the story is fairly “quiet” in tone. However, it could be good for an adult going through some changes in their own life (mostly if they have had a loss) or who like children stories that are usual. This is due to the fact the art is also realistically-abstract, again being a contradiction, but making perfect sense.