40 Fun Facts About Pax (Novel)

What does Peter throw into the woods as a trick, so Pax will chase it and be left behind?

A toy soldier was Pax's favourite plaything, so he bounds after it believing it is a game, and comes back to the road in time to see the car driving away.

What does the Latin word pax, the name Peter gives his pet fox, mean in English?

Peace is the meaning, and Peter comes to find the name bitterly ironic: his pet was abandoned, and may die, because of a war.

Which relative is Peter sent to live with, hundreds of miles from Pax, at the start of the novel?

His grandfather has no room for a fox, tame or otherwise, and Peter lasts less than a night there before remorse sends him hiking back.

How did Peter's mother die, five years before the events of the novel Pax begin?

A car accident killed her on a grocery run, and Peter blames himself: he had been kept behind that day as a punishment for an angry outburst.

Which predators is Pax fighting off when Peter finally catches up with him at the novel's climax?

Coyotes close in because they sense an injured fox in Pax's group, and Peter's arrival helps to drive them away.

Where does Peter decide Pax belongs when the two finally meet again at the end of the novel?

In the wild, Peter decides: seeing Pax defend his new companions, he lets him go instead of taking him back.

Which injury halts Peter's cross-country trek in Pax and strands him at a stranger's farm?

A broken foot from a fall stops Peter in his tracks, and Vola, the hermit who finds him in her barn, sets the bone and teaches him to use crutches.

What does the young fox Runt lose when a land mine explodes near the army camp in Pax?

A hind leg is the price Runt pays for tripping a wire, and Pax and Bristle stay close to nurse him back to health.

What does Peter's father do at the start of Pax that forces the boy to give up his fox?

He enlists as war approaches, and when father and son meet again near the front, Peter accuses him of having known what was coming.

Which American author, known for funny chapter books, wrote the wartime novel Pax?

Sara Pennypacker described her earlier stories as humorous and set in a secure world, a long way from this tale of a boy and a fox caught in a war.

What kind of puppets does Vola keep under burlap in her barn and ask Peter to operate?

Marionettes, so lifelike that Peter first takes them for real heads, include a bird with a wingspan of almost five feet.

Which mythical creature is the charm on the bracelet that Peter keeps from his late mother?

A phoenix was a charm his mother loved, and Peter borrows the image for his puppet show, in which Vola burns and rises from the ashes to start again.

Which sandwich filling can Peter not eat on his trek because it reminds him of Pax?

Peanut butter is Pax's great treat: after his first successful hunt he shares his prized jar of it with Bristle and Runt.

Which food from Runt can the starving Pax keep down, knowing it from his life as a pet?

Eggs save him: Pax throws up the first thing Runt brings, then eats seven quail eggs and sleeps at last while Runt stands guard.

What is the first prey Pax manages to catch after Bristle takes him out and shows him how to hunt?

A mouse is his first kill, and Pax is so pleased that he celebrates by leaping off a tree branch the way he has seen Runt do.

How is Runt, the playful fox who keeps trying to befriend Pax, related to the vixen Bristle?

Her younger brother is drawn to Pax from the start, while Bristle, who blames people for destroying their family, warns him off the newcomer.

What catches Bristle's mother on a winter farm raid in Pax, before both parents are killed?

A trap holds her fast, and Bristle watches both parents clubbed to death, which is why she distrusts Pax and his scent of people.

Which animal wanders into a meadow in Pax and is blown up by a land mine as the armies prepare?

A deer is one of the woodland creatures killed by buried mines as Pax looks on, so readers meet the war through an animal who cannot understand it.

Which artist, creator of the picture book I Want My Hat Back, drew the illustrations for Pax?

Jon Klassen drew the cover and interior art for Pax, and came back five years later to illustrate its sequel as well.

Which piece of sports gear does Peter put to use on the trail after one of his crutches snaps?

A baseball bat fills in after the fall: Peter hears a snap, thinks at first that he has cracked a rib, then finds the crutch has given way under him.

What kind of vehicle, driven by a friend of Vola's, takes Peter as close to Pax as the roads allow?

A bus gets Peter back on his way: Vola asks the driver, a friend, to drop him as near as he can to the place where Pax was left.

Which craft does Peter learn from Vola while he waits for his injury to heal on her farm?

Wood carving is Vola's own art, the one behind her puppets, and Peter becomes good enough at it to make a likeness of Pax.

Which garden ornament of his mother's did Peter smash in a temper on the day she died?

A gazing globe, shattered in a rage, is why Peter was kept back from the shopping trip on which she died, and why he swore never to lose his temper again.

Where does Vola agree to donate her puppets and teach children, as her deal with Peter?

A library receives the puppets as a gift, the first step in the hermit's return to the world after two decades alone.

What does Peter stop to buy at a hardware store after his first dark night as a runaway?

A flashlight is what he failed to pack, and buying it nearly exposes him: the shopkeeper follows him out, noting that he is walking away from the school.

What was Vola's role in the war she served in, about twenty years before she meets Peter?

A medic and not a fighter, Vola never expected to kill anyone, and the one man she did kill still haunts her two decades later.

Why has the veteran Vola chosen to live alone in the woods, far from other people, in Pax?

She feels dangerous after killing a man in combat, and Peter stages a puppet show of her own life to convince her that she is wrong.

What is the subtitle of the sequel to Pax, published five years after the first book?

Journey Home picks the story up a year later, with Pax raising kits of his own and Peter, now orphaned, trying to harden his heart against everyone.

Which bestselling chapter-book series was the author of Pax best known for before her fox novel?

Clementine made her name with humour, and she has said that each new book, Pax included, feels like learning to write all over again.

Which seafaring hero's adventures do Vola's handmade puppets perform in her barn in the novel Pax?

Sinbad was the hero of a book Vola found on an enemy she killed in battle, and she built the puppets to tell his story as a penance.

Which fruit does Peter's puppet show give the young Vola a passion for, before she goes to war?

Peaches stand for the girl Vola was: she remembers gorging on them at night in an orchard and cannot connect that child with the adult who went to fight.

Which American literary prize put Pax on its 2016 longlist for Young People's Literature?

National Book Award judges picked Pax as one of ten longlisted books; it was also a New York Times bestseller and one of Kirkus Reviews' best books of 2016.

Which American picture-book honour did the illustrator of Pax win for This Is Not My Hat?

Caldecott Medal judges honoured him twice over that year: another book he illustrated, Extra Yarn, was named a runner-up at the same time.

On which stop-motion film did the illustrator of Pax work as an animator before turning to books?

Coraline came after a stint on Kung Fu Panda, and he also served as art director on an animated music video for U2.

For which classic children's series did the author of Pax write four travel adventures?

Flat Stanley took her to Mount Rushmore, Egypt and Japan in 2009, years before she attempted anything as dark as Pax.

Which classic novel so obsessed the young author of Pax that she begged to live like its heroine?

Heidi obsessed her: she begged to sleep on hay in the attic and to eat only goat cheese and bread, was refused both, yet was allowed to keep a goat.

The author of Pax found in her research that foxes thrive on every continent except which one?

Antarctica is the lone exception, and that adaptability, along with their loyalty and playfulness, helped foxes win the part over other animals she considered.

Which professional did Peter walk out on after his mother died, believing she never came after him?

A counselor he saw for his grief asked whether he ever got angry, and he left; only the fox's chapters reveal that she came to the house afterwards and was sent away.

Which group does Peter leave Vola's farm to join in the sequel to Pax, hoping to repair war damage?

Water Warriors clean up rivers and reservoirs poisoned in the conflict, turning the machines and structures of war to the work of repair.

Pax grew from a remark its author overheard about a picture book on which zoo animals in wartime?

Elephants are the subject of Faithful Elephants, a picture book about zoo animals that died in World War II, and the idea of thinking animals caught in a war would not leave her.