Stone Fox then permits Willy to carry Searchlight across the finish line, having learned the possibility of peaceful coexistence between a native American and white man. Seeing Willy crying over his loss, Stone Fox draws a line in the snow and unholsters his pistol to stop the other racers, then speaks his first words to the whites 'Anyone crosses this line-I shoot'. As the race ends, Willy is in the lead but Searchlight's heart explodes from constant pressure before they reach the finish line. Stone Fox is also rabidly anti-settler with the resentment of the loss of tribal property, and has never been known to speak a word to a white person. He will be competing against Stone Fox, an undefeated racer who uses his winnings to buy land for his Native American tribe. Willy is convinced that he and Searchlight can beat the other racers entering the National Dogsled Race (held each year in Jackson), and in doing so win the $500 prize money that is required to save the farm. During a harsh winter, his grandfather falls ill and after an audit of the potato farm, the tax collector determines that he owes $500 in unpaid taxes. Ten-year-old Willy lives in Jackson, Wyoming in the 1880s on a potato farm with his grandfather and his dog Searchlight. Stone Fox was originally intended as a screenplay but became a book at the suggestion of a producer.

The book was inspired by a Rocky Mountain legend that Gardiner heard when he visited Idaho. It is written in simple prose and is set at an indeterminate time in the American Old West. The book centers on a boy named Willy who enters a dog sled race in order to win $500 to pay back the taxes on his grandfather's farm. BR4), and was included in 100 Best Books for Children by Anita Silvey. It was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year for 1980 (Nov. 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. Stone Fox was acclaimed and very popular when it was published in 1980. It is the first and best known of Gardiner's books. Stone Fox is a children's novella by John Reynolds Gardiner.

Stone fox paperback