Stone Fox was copyrighted in 1980 and written for children ages 7-11. The author, John Reynolds Gardiner, says… “The idea for this story came from a Rocky Mountain Legend that was told to me in 1974….Although Stone Fox and the other characters are purely fictitious and of my creation, the tragic ending to this story belongs to the legend and is reported to have actually happened.”

The story begins, “One day Grandfather wouldn’t get out of bed.”

The main character, ten-year-old Willy, lives with his grandfather and together they run a potato farm in Wyoming. The other main character of the story is Searchlight. She is a big black dog, born on the same day as Willy. She is old as dogs go, but they take care of each other.

When Grandfather wouldn’t get out of bed, Willy calls on Doc Smith for help. She is a wise older doctor. She examines every inch of Grandfather and can find nothing wrong. Still, he lays in bed, checked out of life, and not speaking a word.

The potatoes are ready for harvest. Willy and Grandfather need that money to survive the year and pay for food. Willy takes on the job of caring for Grandfather, going to school, and getting the potatoes in and stored in the potato shed until they can be sold. He needs to rent a horse to pull the plow that digs up the potatoes, but there is no money for that.

Willy realizes Searchlight is big enough to pull the plow and together they harvest the potatoes.

Soon the snows come. Willy hitches Searchlight to a light sled and she pulls him to the school in town, five miles away.

Doc Smith wants Willy to turn over the care of Grandfather to a lady in town who takes care of sick people. Willy refuses. Everyone in town knows Willy’s situation. He has to ask the owner of the general store how much food and supplies Grandfather had bought the previous year to get them through so he would know what to buy.

When Willy finds out they owe $500 in back taxes on the farm, he finally understands what made Grandfather go to bed and give up on life. But Willy doesn’t give up. He dresses up and goes to see the banker. The banker encourages Willy to sell the farm. Willy talks to everyone in town he could think to get advice from. They all agree—he should sale the farm.

Then Willy notices a poster in the general store for a dog race coming up. The prize for the winner would be $500.00.

Enter—Stone Fox!

Stone Fox is a large Indian man with an amazing team of Samoyeds. He doesn’t talk to white people. He is angry because the white people took his people’s land. Every year he enters the dog race with his team and wins. He is using the money to buy back the land that he felt was stolen from his people.

Willy and Searchlight are up against Stone Fox’s amazing team. I’ll let you read the book to find out if Willy is able to save the farm. The ending of the book is shocking and well worth the read.

Now…. I know the “Grandfather” character is fictitious, but I would just like to address the fact that some people do choose to check out of life when they get older. The Grandfather in the book checked out because he could see no way to save the farm. Willy didn’t check out. He chose to find a way and take action.

People in real life check out for various reasons. What I have observed is a turning inward and only doing what they want. They develop the mentality that they deserve to reward themselves with rest, rest, and more rest after a certain age. They stop going places, they stop reading and learning, they stop seeing people because they don’t want input on how they are living. There is nothing more tragic in my opinion than people who do this. And—try as you might, you can’t budge them. The Grandfather in the story, although fictional, is a perfect picture of this.

I loved the story and recommend the book for children and adults. The courage of Willy was very inspiring, but the Grandfather made me angry.

Do you every get that involved in a book—where you get very angry at a character because they remind you of someone in real life?

If so, comment below and share that book with us.

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” 2 Corinthians 4:16-17 (NIV)

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