Scary Stories for Young Foxes

In 2021, Sarah Yung of Publisher’s Weekly spoke with author Christian McKay Heidicker about his work, especially Scary Stories for Young Foxes and its sequel, Scary Stories for Young Foxes: The City. Heidicker acknowledged that his novel might be considered especially dark and harrowing in the content that it addresses and depicts. He explained the reasoning behind his choices as an author by saying:

I like to knock down walls in fiction, and there are more walls in children’s literature than anywhere else. I think there are some things that kids absolutely do not need to hear about until they’re grown. But there are other things, scary things, that I think kids need to know before they enter this increasingly complex and, let’s be honest, terrifying world.

I love this quote from Neil Gaiman: ‘I personally believe that if you are keeping people—young people—safe from the darkness, then, when the darkness shows up, you are denying them tools or weapons that they might have needed and could have had’ (Yung, Sarah. “Q & A With Christian McKay Heidicker.” Publisher’s Weekly, 2 Sept. 2021).

This philosophy is echoed in Scary Stories for Young Foxes when the storyteller herself expresses a similar sentiment before she begins her narrative. Frightening fictional content has the potential to allow diverse audiences to acclimate themselves to horrors they might one day encounter in their own lives. Younger readers, however, by nature of their inexperience, often have fewer life experiences to draw from, and if they are fortunate, they have been protected from many of the heartbreaking and difficult lessons that Uly and Mia are forced to learn in Scary Stories for Young Foxes. The author’s contention is that for those who have not experienced terrors like Mia and Uly have, horror fiction provides the opportunity to consider unthinkable possibilities while occupying a safe space. In this context, they are empowered to explore serious issues and ask questions that will prepare them to face the horrors that exist in the real world. Similarly, for those children who have already suffered real tragedies, reading such frightening fictional tales might help them to process and understand what happened to them in real life; the opportunity to identify with Mia and Uly’s struggles therefore offers them a chance to find hope that they too can grow stronger and defeat their own personal monsters. Like Heidicker, the elder storyteller—who turns out to be Mia herself as an old fox—shares her stories in the hope that the audience will not only be entertained but also feel empowered and better prepared to face an unpredictable world.

Heidicker also introduces a concept for his young readers that he realizes may inevitably result in some unpleasant reactions. In a 2020 article entitled “The Grizzly Habits of Beatrix Potter,” Heidicker is quoted as saying, “I know, I know. […] I’ve ruined Beatrix Potter for so many people. I’m…not really sorry” (Cooperman, Jannette. “The Grisly Habits of Beatrix Potter.” The Common Reader, 17 Feb. 2020). The real-life British author Beatrix Potter is widely beloved for her creation of the famous book The Tale of Peter Rabbit, along with many other children’s books that feature the adventures of animal characters. Heidicker may indeed have taken some creative license in portraying Miss Potter as more callous than she may have been in real life. However, as evidenced by Dr. Cooperman’s article, Potter was also a naturalist who euthanized animals with ether (a common practice at the time) in order to study their physiology. She spoke regularly with a kind of blasé disregard about the lengths to which she went to understand her subject matter, showing little compassion for the trauma she inflicted upon the animals she exploited. Through Scary Stories for Young Foxes, Heidicker is not only preparing his young readers by presenting fictional scenarios that mirror real life, but he is also unveiling a gruesome and disappointing truth about someone whom many people once held in impeccably high regard. By divulging the truth of Potter’s willingness to engage in animal cruelty, Heidicker accepts and even embraces the conflict his work has created, and his motive can be interpreted as an act in service of the greater good: enlightening young readers about life’s harsher realities. If his young readers develop a crucial awareness that not everything is as innocuous as it seems, Heidicker is willing to bear the disdain of those who prefer to pretend that ignoring the world’s horrors is the same thing as vanquishing them.