One Fox is a book we have re-read more times than strictly necessary. It earns every re-read.
The form is a counting book. The content is a thriller. One fox. Two sly eyes. Three plump hens. Four padding paws. The numbers count off the fox’s stalk toward a hen house, each page a step closer, until the hens notice.
Counting books are usually a delivery vehicle. One teddy, two cars, three whatever, and so on until ten and a cheerful resolution. Kate Read uses the count for a different purpose here, which is to pace tension. Every number narrows the gap. By the time you get to the higher numbers you are properly invested.
Read wrote and illustrated this herself, in cut-paper and chalky pastel that gives the fox enough texture to feel dangerous even though the setting is stylised. The ending flips the predator-prey relationship and we will leave the book to deliver it. We tend to put One Fox into class sets for Year 1s whose Reception year was standard counting-book fare. It shows them the form can carry weight.