The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest

Gr 5-7–A fantastic tale of loss, discovery, afterlife, and mushrooms. Deadwood Forest is not alive but it’s also not dead, as is the case with its resident Afterlife Usher. Clare is a fox who was spared death so he could become a guide to lost souls trying to pass on to the afterlife. Leading a solitary but meaningful life, Clare has learned to guide wandering spirits and to read the signs of what the eternal life is trying to communicate. Meanwhile, he is the keeper of the forest, a mushroom farmer, and an acquaintance to two trashrats. He does his job well and efficiently, so it’s only when Gingersnips the badger shows up without a clear or easy way to pass on that Clare starts sensing trouble. To make matters worse, the contrasting Fernlight Forest’s usher called Hesterfowl has delivered a premonition about Deadwood Forest, and Clare and Gingersnips will have to put their species’ antagonistic natures to rest to solve the mystery. Told in beautiful prose and with rich imagery, this is a deep story about death, loss, and grief, but also about compassion, finding meaning, and discovering what one really is made of in the face of the strongest adversity. Clare’s painful un-death, the mystery of his missing mother, and Gingersnips’s own tragic family story will grip every reader’s heart.