The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse follows a simple narrative as each of these creatures meet and interact with one another in fanciful childlike ways. Some of the phrases read a bit like fortune cookies or other snippets of advice that feel so obvious and timeless that you wonder why you hadn't thought of them before. The book also balances emotions between humourous, laughable moments and tender, sad situations.
In this age of low-attention-span and instant gratification, this book is great since it can be read quickly. And even if you don't want to read the whole thing at once, you can open to any handful of pages and quickly find nuggets of goodness to bring you a rapid burst of joy. Part of me wanted a little more depth but that's not the purpose of this book. It's meant to be easily ingestible so you can quickly absorb it again and again and then let it simmer and percolate with you over time.
My main gripes with the book are the art and graphic design. The artwork is fun and cute but it's of an unfinished style that I don't always love. I suppose it could be as a metaphor to further let the readers add their own finishing touches to the interpretation but I would've loved a little more polish to the art. My bigger gripe is with the font choice. It's written in a script that's meant to be a handwritten cursive. Much of the time it's not too bad but there were many instances where the sloppy nature of the writing required me slowing down considerably as I read so I could focus more on the letters. Again, this could be an intentional choice to try and make readers take more time with the book, but I just found it a bit annoying.
Overall though, I really enjoyed this book and have given it as a gift numerous times. It's one that I'll gladly pick up and thumb through from time to time just to smile at the simple truths and joys it brings.
3.5 out of 5 stars
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