Scary Stories for Young Foxes

Why do you think the young foxes’ mother directed them to the storyteller’s den in the beginning of the frame story? What does she hope they will gain from Mia’s stories that her own stories cannot provide? How does the truthfulness of Mia’s own story as an autobiographical cautionary tale impact the significance of what she shares with the young kits, and how does this significance extend to Heidicker’s human audience?

What is something that you once thought innocent or harmless that shocked you once you learned more about it? How did the event change your perception? Compare your own experience to those of Mia and Uly.

Were you surprised to learn that Mia was the storyteller at the end of Scary Stories for Young Foxes? What hints does the author provide to indicate that Mia’s story is true? Analyze at least three examples from the text.

Examine the differences between the two stories Uly tells Mia in the swamp: the first, about the yellow sickness, which is true and told in graphic detail, and the second, about the Golgathursh, which is a wild exaggeration. What purposes do these stories eventually serve? What do Mia and Uly discover about the world around them through the proving or disproving of each story?

Though Beatrix Potter is a human woman and Mr. Scratch is a male fox, their two characters share more in common than any other two characters in the story. What is so frightening about them? Use examples from the text to illustrate your point.

Examine the potential for a dominant, frightening leader figure to corrupt those around them. How do they succeed in gaining compliance? Explore how these methods of coercion, terror, and manipulation manifest in Mr. Scratch’s greater objective as tyrannical dictator of the Lilac Kingdom, once Mia meets the vixens under his dominion and observes how he exerts control.

Mothers in Scary Stories for Young Foxes could be interpreted as falling short of protecting their children. Do you feel that the decisions and actions of the mothers in these stories are justified and understandable under the circumstances, or do you think that they should have shown more courage? How do Uly and Mia perceive their mothers’ actions, and how do they decide upon the foxes they want to be as a result?

Three different foxes are “trapped” by their paws, literally and figuratively, in Scary Stories for Young Foxes: Mia’s mother, Uly, and then Mia herself. What are the circumstances surrounding each incident, and how does each fox process and adapt to their incapacitation and helplessness? How do some foxes turn these disadvantages into strengths and advantages, and how might these attributes transfer to the realities of the human world?