The Hungry Fox and the Foxy Duck by Kathleen Leverich (1978) is one of many stories with a deceitful fox as a main character. Paul Galdone presents this fox in tattered clothing. It's jacket has patches at the elbows and is secured with a large safety pin. A patch covers a space on the knee of its pants. Both the cover art and title suggests the outcome: the fox looks frustrated and the duck is smiling. Duck lives "on a pond in a field with a fence all around." This text and the accompanying illustration foreshadow events to come.
One day, a fox shows up and invites the duck to breakfast. This duck is unlike the naive ones I've encountered in other books. This duck smiles and request the fox find a table. "'How can we eat breakfast without a table?' she asked." When fox returns with a table, the duck as more requirements that take the pair through an entire day. At last, the fox is frightened away. Remember the setting? The solution to duck's problem is in the second page.
