The separation of kids from their pets is a familiar theme in children’s literature. You might have read Sheila Burnford’s classic story “The Incredible Journey” or the more recent “A Dog’s Way Home” by Bobbie Pyron.
Sara Pennypacker, author of the “Summer of the Gypsy Moths,” explores that idea in her latest novel, “Pax.” What sets this book apart is a second theme that’s not often talked about in kids books: the effects of war.
“I think the most unfair thing about war … is that children seem to suffer the most,” Pennypacker said, talking to KidsPost from Florida, where she lives in the winter.
Pennypacker said she had wanted to explore that idea for a while, but she couldn’t figure out how to handle such a heavy issue in a kids book. At the same time, she was thinking of writing about the bond between kids and their pets. Owning a pet exposes kids to feelings of not only love and loyalty but also empathy, or sensitivity to what their pet is going through.
“By age 12, I think they think a lot about what goes on with their pet,” she said.
Those ideas came together in the story of Peter, a 12-year-old who lives with his father and a pet fox named Pax. The fox was just a few weeks old when his mother was killed and his littermates died. Peter found him and brought him home.
The fox becomes the closest companion to the boy, whose mother died when he was 7 and whose father is always either silent or angry. From the start of the story, however, boy and pet are being torn apart. War is coming.
“It means sacrifices for everybody,” Peter’s father tells him. “I have to serve – it’s my duty. And you have to go away.”
Peter must travel 300 miles to live with his grandfather. But first, his father insists that he return the tamed fox to the wild. The boy reluctantly follows the order but soon regrets the decision.
“Leaving Pax hadn’t been the right thing to do,” Peter says.
The boy sets out alone on a journey to find Pax, who meanwhile tells his own story of navigating in the wilderness, longing to reconnect with Peter.
Both characters have a lot to learn.
“Pax needs to tap into his wild side, and Peter needs to tame his wild side,” Pennypacker said.
An old woman Peter meets along the way is a sounding board for the boy’s anger.
“I didn’t choose for there to be a war. I didn’t choose for my father to join up. I didn’t choose to leave my house,” Peter tells her. “And I sure didn’t choose to abandon an animal I took care of for five years.”
Nameless adults, including Peter’s father, are to blame for the boy’s heartbreak and the danger facing every living thing in the area. Pennypacker wants kids to realize that they will become the decision-makers, the ones responsible for the consequences of future wars.
“The fair question is ‘what will this cost?’” she said. “I’m not taking the position that no war is worth fighting, but we should count all the costs.”
Pennypacker’s story is optimistic that the next generation will consider those costs. A note on the book’s last page tweaks an old saying about how people often turn out just like their parents. It reads, “Sometimes an apple falls very far from the tree.”
What’s next for Sara Pennypacker
“Waylon! One Awesome Thing,” the first in an early-reader trilogy, will be published in April. The books are a spinoff of Pennypacker’s seven “Clementine” books.
“When I finished the ‘Clementine’ books, I was bereft. I missed her,” the author said. “I realized if I wrote ‘Waylon,’ then I would be able to [explore] Clementine from a different point of view.”
The Waylon character was inspired by Pennypacker’s son, who was artistic and obsessed with science.
After the “Waylon” books are finished, Pennypacker hinted, something for older readers might be in the works.
“After ‘Pax,’ I thought I couldn’t handle another novel. But that’s the direction I’m going. I suspect the next [story] is a novel.”