Ten-year-old Philip Doty, nicknamed Flip by his family, finds himself in hot water when he orders a live fox through the mail. Having always wanted a fox as a pet, Flip finds it difficult to understand that a wild animal is not the best choice for a companion. As the terrified vixen, named Vickie by Flip, hides beneath his bed, the young New Jersey boy must contend with the anger of his mother, and the terror of his new adoptive brother, Todd. Once Tae Woon, Todd had been adopted from Korea some months before, and as the situation with Vickie plays out, Flip comes to terms with his mixed feelings about this new member of the family...

Published in 1988 and long out-of-print, Mail-Order Kid is not a book with which I was familiar, before my interest in the depiction of foxes in children's books led me to track it down. Truthfully, this is more a family story than a tale of a boy and a fox, and Vickie functions as a means to an end, teaching Flip that wild things belong in the wild, while also offering him a chance to work out his feelings about his changed familial circumstances. There are clear parallels being drawn between Vickie and Todd, who have both been removed from their native homes, and thrust into strange and intimidating new locales, and Flip's growing awareness of and sympathy for their unhappiness is nicely drawn. Although I was drawn to it for the (minimal) fox interest, I would chiefly recommend this brief middle-grade novel to those readers looking for stories which grapple with the after-effects of adoption on families, particularly the existing children of said families. ( )