Fantastic Mr. Fox

这几乎是一本可以一口气读完的小书，篇幅短促，情节简单，却让人回味无穷。它讲的是一只饿到边缘的狐狸爸爸，如何用智慧从三个贪婪卑鄙的农场主手里为全家抢回食物。真正打动读者的，是它骨子里那股'以智取胜'的爽感与温情：狐狸不靠蛮力，而靠谋略与冷静，把逼到绝境的家人平安送回。书中几首俏皮的童谣也为故事添了不少童趣。许多读者由电影回溯原著，反而觉得那份克制与机智在文字里愈发鲜明。它适合想快速读完、又希望孩子读到一点'聪明对抗强权'智慧的家长——不沉重，却有余味。

Roald Dahl was a British novelist, short story writer and screenwriter of Norwegian descent, who rose to prominence in the 1940's with works for both children and adults, and became one of the world's bestselling authors. Dahl's first published work, inspired by a meeting with C. S. Forester, was Shot Down Over Libya. Today the story is published as A Piece of Cake. The story, about his wartime adventures, was bought by the Saturday Evening Post for $900, and propelled him into a career as a writer. Its title was inspired by a highly inaccurate and sensationalized article about the crash that blinded him, which claimed he had been shot down instead of simply having to land because of low fuel. His first children's book was The Gremlins, about mischievous little creatures that were part of RAF folklore. The book was commissioned by Walt Disney for a film that was never made, and published in 1943. Dahl went on to create some of the best-loved children's stories of the 20th century, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda and James and the Giant Peach. He also had a successful parallel career as the writer of macabre adult short stories, usually with a dark sense of humour and a surprise ending. Many were originally written for American magazines such as Ladies Home Journal, Harper's, Playboy and The New Yorker, then subsequently collected by Dahl into anthologies, gaining world-wide acclaim. Dahl wrote more than 60 short stories and they have appeared in numerous collections, some only being published in book form after his death. His stories also brought him three Edgar Awards: in 1954, for the collection Someone Like You; in 1959, for the story "The Landlady"; and in 1980, for the episode of Tales of the Unexpected based on "Skin".