Pax by Sara Pennypacker
Illustrated by Jon Klassen
The cover for Pax, the bestselling new novel by Sara Pennypacker, grabs me every time I see it. Aimed at children aged about 9+, Pax is a "moving story of the extraordinary friendship between a boy and his fox, and their epic journey to be reunited".
Peter is forced to return his beloved fox, whom he had rescued as a baby, Pax to the wild when he is sent to live with his grandfather because his father has enlisted in war. But before one night passes, he sneaks out, determined to find his friend, beginning an epic journey back to each other as war rampages through the country.
Jon Klassen's beautiful illustration, with its muted colors, captures the bleak landscape of wartime and the image of Pax gazing into the distance suggests the journey he and Peter will undertake to be reunited. It makes me wonder what he sees, what he is looking for and how he will find it.
Jon Klassen has won both the Caldecott Medal and the Kate Greenaway Medal for his illustrations in children's books. In addition to illustrating for others, he has also written and illustrated his own books for children (if you haven't read Klassen's This Is Not My Hat, you're seriously missing out).
Pax was published by Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Children's, on February 2 in hardback, ebook and audiobook.