Big Mama sends Flossie Finley on an errand with a warning. There's a sly, egg-poaching fox on the loose!

But little Flossie's never seen a fox before. So when she meets a strange critter in the woods who tells her he's a fox, Flossie's not all impressed. "Nope, I just purely don't believe it," she challenges, calling him rabbit, rat, but never fox. Just what will it take for slick talking Fox to prove he's a fox for real?

Patricia C. McKissack's jaunty folktale, peppered with the rich Black language of the rural South, sparkles with wit and humor. And Caldecott Honor artist Rachel Isadora's lush and vibrant illustrations enrich a feisty fable—sure to keep readers cheering from beginning to end!

From the dust jacket

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Long before I became a writer, I was a listener. On hot summer evenings our family sat on the porch and listened to my grandmother tell a hair-raising ghost story or watched my mother dramatize a Dunbar poem. But it was always a special treat when my grandfather took the stage. He was a master storyteller who charmed his audience with humorous stories told in the rich and colorful dialect of the rural South. I never wanted to forget them. So, it is through me that my family's storytelling legacy lives on.

Here is a story from my youth, retold in the same rich and colorful language that was my grandfather's. He began all his yarns with a question. "Did I ever tell you 'bout the time lil' Flossie Finley come out the Piney Woods heeling a fox?" I'd snuggle up beside him in the big porch swing, then he'd begin his tale...

From the book