Although the animals' passive acceptance of their captivity and the success in hiding them in so watchful a community seem a bit unlikely [in A Family of Foxes], the boys, their efforts and their anxieties, are real and vivid. For younger readers than Dillon's The Coriander or The Island of Horses, it lacks their breathless pace but is a well developed, tender animal story and a memorable re-creation of an island world shaped by isolation, superstition, and ceaseless economic struggle. Highly recommended.