Review by Karl Verhoven

The Tiny Fox and Great Boar books are deliberately not numbered, which actively encourages their being read in any order, meaning there’s a clever ambiguity about the opening to Furthest. Any child who’s had There read to them can consider it as picking up after the end to the first in the series, but other than knowing Tiny Fox and Great Boar are friends, which is obvious from the start, there’s no reason not to start here.

Berenika Kołomycka ended There with a crisis point. Would Tiny Fox and Great Boar risk crossing the road and heading for the unknown territory of the other side? They did. “Everything around them seemed different, but the friends were not afraid because they were together”. If the end to the first book meant confronting fears and taking that leap into the unknown, Furthest is about the joy of exploration. Tiny Fox and Great Boar are in new territory and discover a whole world of new experiences, such as the elation of seeing fireflies in the sample art.

A few more risks are taken with the art for this book. It’s still simple for maximum appeal to the children to whom it’s being read, but there’s some innovation to Furthest, with montage pages and a busier world than the previous valley, offering vegetation rather than just fields and trees. The new experience of fog stands out artistically, with washes of grey and slightly off-white providing the mystery and fear of the unknown.

It’s pleasing that Kołomycka emphasises the joys of all seasons and conditions, with Tiny Fox noting how much they enjoy the rain. So do other creatures, and toward the end of Furthest a group of seals meet Tiny Fox and Great Boar. As this is a non-threatening world, their appearing is something to be celebrated and explored, not feared, and it’s as joyful as the remainder of Furthest. The level of joy has increased a little from the opening book, with Kołomycka becoming more at home in the world she’s created, and this is another treat to be read to young children by parents or carers. A third treat follows in Dawn.