The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy

“What do we do when our hearts hurt?” asked the boy….”We wrap them up with friendship, shared tears and time, till they wake hopeful and happy again.” ~

I am definitely a bit of a book worm, I love cute little book shops. In fact, I remember going into this cute little book shop in York (beautiful York) a year or two ago and believe it or not I spent a good hour or two browsing around. It was only a small little store yet I was so drawn into it and almost didn’t want to leave. There is just something nice about books that is so satisfying. I get lost in them and find myself detached from my current reality while immersed in a good book. At times, this is the best thing. Sometimes our own realities become far too much and we need a little escape from them. I like all genres however most recently, experiencing depression lead me to read a lot more non-fiction books around mental health by various authors. If you ever looked through my amazon order history, you would see that the list of books I have recently ordered are endless. I could quite possibly open up my own little book store. I know I definitely need some kind of stable bookshelf to keep them all from getting tatty just laying around. So far I have only review the Matt Haig books in previous posts and I have an endless list to review however I really wanted to write my thought on this book.

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse is just a magnificent book filled with the most beautiful little illustrations by Charlie Mackesy and words that match the beautiful illustrations. So lovely and meaningful. A beautiful book. I love this book so much. Just flicking through the pages makes me feel good. A book I recommend for all ages, something for everyone, a lesson for all to read about. This book makes you stop and think about those important little things in life, even the silence of the fox (who doesn’t often speak) is beautiful. The boy starts by meeting a ‘small’ little mole who loves eating cake, they walk together and talk to one another about life. Reading this, I could not help but fall in love with this cake-eating mole. (Heart-shaped eyes emoji)! They then come across the fox and then meet the horse. We get to see how far they have come. Their friendship, their words and their love.

The drawings and words are so beautiful that I could never tire of flicking through this book. Sometimes emptiness knocks at my door and welcomes himself in, on those days especially I reach for this book and find comfort in it. A soothing I yearn for. I don’t have enough words to describe how much this book means to me.

Charlie Mackesy’s art is one I have also fallen in love with, his illustrations are beautiful. He writes of storms and what we can learn from them and that they make us kinder. Personally, the storm I seem to have stepped into is a violet one, it slaps me in the face and tries to crush me to the ground in the hope of burying me beneath the earth. It tries to tear me apart. It makes me believe it’s uncontrollable. I find my world flipped upside down by it. I’m left hanging by a small hair-thin piece of thread about to fall into the black lava that awaits me below. The storm always seems endless, the end is always out of sight. The storm teaches us about feelings and emotions we never knew existed within us but let me tell you….. Storms end. They do. Just wait. I tell myself to just wait. Hang in there. That piece of thread is stronger than you believe and your grip is tighter than ever before. This book teaches me this …

Let me know of your thoughts about this book… what did you think? If you have not read it then I hope you enjoyed my book review.

Love to you all

Zo x