Stone Fox

Blurb

Stone Fox is a short children's novel by John Reynolds Gardiner. It is the first and best known of Gardiner's books. Stone Fox was acclaimed and very popular when it was published in 1980. It sold three million copies and was turned into a television movie starring Buddy Ebsen, Joey Cramer, and Gordon Tootoosis and directed by Harvey Hart in 1987. It was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year for 1980, and was included in 100 Best Books for Children by Anita Silvey.
The book centers on a boy named Little Willy who enters a dog sled race in order to win $500 to pay back the taxes on his grandfather's farm. It is written in simple prose and is set at an indeterminate time in the American Old West. The book was inspired by a Rocky Mountain legend that Gardiner heard when he visited Idaho. Stone Fox was originally intended as a screenplay, but became a book at the suggestion of a producer.