"She acknowledges confusion. Nowhere in her books does she imply there are solutions to grief, abandonment, loneliness. . . . By admitting to the universality of fear, puzzlement, and foolish behavior, she invites the reader to scream, to snicker, to laugh, to admit pain." It is a formula that readers and critics alike have responded to positively, for her books prove to be popular many years after initial publication and have won numerous awards, including the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Medal, the Newbery Medal, and the American Book Award for Children's Fiction Paperback.
In addition to her award-winning picture books, chapter books, novels for intermediate readers, and realistic fiction for young adults, Fox has also authored novels for adults, such as Desperate Characters, which was adapted for a motion picture. Fox has been described by Nation contributor Blair T. Birmelin as "one of our most intelligent (and least appreciated) contemporary novelists." Fox does not feel the need to distinguish between her adult and juvenile fiction, however. She commented in John Rowe Townsend's A Sense of Story: Essays on Contemporary Writers for Children, "I never think I'm writing for children, when I work.
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