Fox goes on a quest to find the “fabulously fascinating flower” that his botany books are unable to reproduce. “A page with no picture”?! he repeats at this point, playfully, with an inquisitive movement of his cute little hand. We watch Fox prepare his hiking gear, setting off before sunrise, observe the well-known trees and mountain flowers and climb up to the very summit of the mountain, the only place where the rare golden glow can be found. There’s some excited fidgeting and bum bouncing and a big smile on little gosling’s face when fox finally sees the flower, and he gently caresses the drawing. 

He enjoys guessing and learning the different trees, flowers and hiking equipment drawn explicatively in the book on two-pages spreadsheets. He registered that the spruce cones grow downwards and the larch’s cone is chubby and growing upwards :P. Aaaand, the maple tree “gives us syrup” :)). We pick favourites amongst the mountain flowers and he’s very quizzical about the compass. That’s a rather difficult item to explain in too much detail to a 2 and a half yrs old… He’s impatiently waiting for the marmot and the mountain goat to appear in the story and I bet he wouldn’t mind tasting one of fox’s grape pate sandwich (even though he says he doesn’t like grapes). The book ends with a beautiful message about observing plants in their natural surroundings, where they belong, with Fox drawing the much-awaited flower from all possible angles, instead of taking it home. 

I love the little details: fox’s inviting reading corner, in an armchair, by the window, surrounded by plants all around; the mountain goat reading a book while balancing on a rock; the colors of the sunrise and sunset. 

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Illustrations exquisitely accompany the text. Putting into words the child’s perspective, the illustrations play around with long shots and close-ups from different angles, like coming up from deep down in the water to see the child bowing down to touch the fish swirling around or seeing from the side the child lying down on his grandfather’s knees and observing the swallows flying overhead. My favourite is the canoe sliding between a sea of yellow water lilies and beautiful dragonflies. Little gosling is fascinated by the movement of the paddle, repeating “dip and swing” like he would want to memorise it for when he goes canoeing :P, by the industrious beavers, always pointing to all chopped down trees and the underwater tunnels, the golden ducklings queuing behind their mommy and the child trying to catch an elusive leaping frog. 

The bond between the grandfather and grandchild is so organic and so subtly present in small details here and there in both text and illustrations. And there’s something so sweet, endearing and lasting about the grandfather carrying the sleeping child in his arms back to the house at the end of the story…  

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