This is actually a book I have a history with. To be specific, I once started reading the Dutch translation as a young kid in school but never managed to finish it for whatever reason. Ever since then I was looking for the book again so I could hopefully finish it, but I couldn't find it anywhere because I'd forgotten the title, author, plot or even the name of the (Dutch) publisher. So finding it was difficult, all I remembered was the word "Zoeklicht" (Searchlight) and a black dog on the cover. Not a lot to go off.
But due to a lucky turn of events I recently found out what the Dutch title of the book is (it directly translated to "The Great Dog Sledding Race") and even managed to get a cheap secondhand copy of the Dutch edition. Turns out this book is none other than Stone Fox, a book I already knew existed but just never made the connection that the Dutch edition was a translation of this book because of the different title.
So now that I have a finally copy after my longer-than-a-decade quest to figure out what that one book I read as a kid was, I might as well read and review it, eh? Spoilers ahead.
Little Willy is a boy who lives on a farm with his grandfather and his dog Searchlight. One day, Grandpa falls ill, almost in a coma, and Willy is left to take care of the farm by himself. He just barely manages to make ends meet, but then he realizes that his grandfather is very behind on paying his taxes, leading to them having to pay five hundred dollars, otherwise Willy and his grandfather will be kicked off the property. Willy takes the only chance he has to gain enough money: He joins a sled dog race and hopes to use its price money to pay off the dept. In this race he is up against none other than Stone Fox, a legendary musher who has never lost a race.
So, yeah, okay, because I'm already vaguely familiar with the Stone Fox book and also watched the movie, the plot didn't come as a huge surprise for me, but I was still interested in seeing how the actual book executed things. Not very differently from the movie adaptation I watched, but okay.
The book is very clearly aimed at younger children but that's honestly no problem. Despite the writing voice being curt and simple the book still takes its audience seriously and also doesn't hesitate to touch (even if briefly) on more mature topics, whether it be death, abuse, colonialism and debt. It doesn't do a whole lot with some of these topics (for example, colonialism is brought up but there's no real payoff to it) but at least it doesn't hesitate to show its readers some darker topics while also keeping things tasteful enough for the younger readers.
The story is honestly just quite depressing to the point I was wondering why no adults were really stepping in to help Willy, though. To the point it felt almost unrealistic. He's a kid of like ten years old, running this farm on his own and his grandpa is in a semi-coma, possibly dying. The only other friend Willy has is his elderly dog, Searchlight. And there are adults in town, quite a few in fact, who are on good terms with both Willy and Grandpa, but nobody really does anything about the situation. There's a doctor who does sometimes check up on Grandpa but doesn't really help Willy himself in the long run, there's other people who care for them, but almost nobody's stepping up to help.
Reminder, Willy is an orphan. Grandpa and Searchlight are literally the only people he has left. So for a lot of the book I was just wondering "where the heck are the adults to step in in this kind of situation?". Like, I get that for the theme and conflicts of the book they wanted to have Willy try to handle things himself, but it feels just rather unrealistic that no adults would step up to help here, whether it be by giving Willy money, helping look after the farm, taking up al the care for Grandpa so Willy has more time to tend to the crops, etc. There is one woman who is said by the doctor to be able to be care for Grandpa, but this is never actually shown to the reader so again this likely did not happen. There is actually one guy in the story who does offer help, but Willy refuses it. But that's it. This part just doesn't have a lot of verisimilitude to me.
The rest of the book was honestly fine. Willy is a simple main character with not a lot to him, but you do root for him just because of his plight. He's an orphan, his only remaining family member is dying and now he has to keep a farm going while also paying off a huge tax debt all by himself. And worse yet, his dog Searchlight, the one he enters the race with? Yeah, she dies just meters in front of the finish line because Willy overworked her and her heart literally explodes. Jesus Christ.
As for the portrayal for Stone Fox, that's where I'm less enthused. Keep in mind, I'm white so I'm not the voice you should be listening to when it comes to Native American representation, but his portrayal in this book feels a bit...mixed to me.
He's an antagonistic character throughout most of the book, not because he's a villain but simply because he wants to win the dog sledding race instead of Willy. His goal why he wants to win is actually a really noble and sympathetic one: He uses the price money to buy back colonized land for his people. Which is like, good, to the point I did feel bad for Stone Fox if he were to lose the race.
Even if Willy wins, the fact is still that Grandpa is sick and elderly and it seems unlikely that they'll be able to keep the farm for much longer because of this, since even when Grandpa was healthy they had very meager yield, which is were those debts are implied to have come from, anyways. So even with Grandpa implied to be possibly be better at the end of the book, there's still some doubt for the fate of the farm.
Meanwhile if Stone Fox wins you know instantly what he'll do with the money. Buy the land back from the white settlers for his tribe. That's honestly a really good and noble cause so while I obviously wanted Willy to win because he's our protagonist, in the long run it seems that Stone Fox winning just has a more permanent happy ending than Willy, even if it's just implied between the lines.
But then there's also some stereotypes regarding Native Americans Stone Fox falls into and at one point he does hit Willy square in the face to the point it starts swelling and I'm just not sure if that's the kind of representation we want for this character. It's not like there's a lot of Native American characters in this book, Stone Fox is literally the only one, and as one I'd say how he was written was a mixed bag. He has noble goals and thankfully he does have a good moment in the end of the book where he allows Willy to cross the finish line with now-deceased Searchlight so he does still win the money, but that's it. Probably not the worst Native American representation out there, but it doesn't feel all that great either.
The book overall I do consider good, simple enough but also briefly touches on deeper themes. I'm just mostly mixed on the fact that it doesn't at all feel realistic that no adults are stepping in in this situation, and of course how Stone Fox's character is portrayed. There's also the fact that despite the ending being portrayed as a bittersweet victory (Searchlight dies but Willy wins the race and money), there's just the implication that in the long run this won't work out, either. Willy and Grandpa are still poor and it seems unlikely they can make ends meet in the future, Grandpa still isn't full recovered yet (if he ever even will is never shown), and their beloved dog who helped them out on the farm is gone.
The fact that the book ends super abruptly with no epilogue whatsoever also just feels a bit unsatisfying. Willy winning just doesn't mean a lot if it is implied that they'll still be poor and Grandpa might never fully recover, even if he's slightly better now. And what if Grandpa, who is already old in the first place, dies? What will happen to Willy and the farm then? Never even touched on. So I'd have liked something of an epilogue that implied things were going to be okay after this. I can do with open endings, but for the younger readers I'd say this is a very depressing note to end on.
So mixed thoughts overall, but I do consider it a decent book. Just one I have a few gripes with.
Rating: 3/5
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