SATA
ENTRY TYPE:
WORK TITLE: I’m an Immigrant Too!
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S): Fox, Merrion Frances
BIRTHDATE: 3/5/1946
WEBSITE: http://www.memfox.net/
CITY: Brighton
STATE:
COUNTRY: Australia
NATIONALITY: Australian
LAST VOLUME: SATA 268
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born March 5, 1946, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; daughter of Wilfrid Gordon McDonald (a missionary) and Nancy Walkden (a writer) Partridge; married Malcolm Fox (a teacher), January 2, 1969; children: Chloë Catienne.
EDUCATION:Attended Rose Bruford Drama School (London, England), 1968; Flinders University (Adelaide, South Australia, Australia), B.A., 1978; South Australian College of Advanced Education, B.Ed., 1979, graduate diploma, 1981.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, educator, and television host. Cabra Dominican School, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia, drama teacher, 1970-72; South Australian College of Advanced Education-Sturt (now Flinders University), Adelaide, lecturer, 1973-86, senior lecturer, beginning 1987, associate professor of literacy studies until 1996. Speaker and lecturer at literary conferences and other events; educational consultant.
MEMBER:South Australian Story Telling Guild (founder, 1978, president, 1981), Actors Equity, Australian Society of Authors, National Council for Teachers of English, Primary English Teachers Association (Australia), Children’s Book Council (Australia), Association for Study of Australian Literature.
AWARDS:Australian Children’s Book Council Picture Book of the Year high commendation and New South Wales Premier’s Literary Award for Best Children’s Book, both 1984, both for Possum Magic; Australian Picture Book of the Year shortlist and Child Study Association of America’s Children’s Books designation, both 1985, and New York Times Notable Books designation, 1986, all for Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge; Dromkeen Medal for distinguished services to children’s literature, 1990; Advance Australia Award, 1991, for outstanding contribution to Australian literature; medal from Australia Day Honors awards, 1993; honorary D.Litt., University of Wollongong, Australia, 1996; South Australia Great Award for literature, 2001; Woman of Achievement Award, Zonta International, 2002; Prime Minister’s Centenary Medal, 2003; named Australian of the Year for South Australia, 2003; Australian of the Year finalist, 2004; honorary D.Litt., University of Flinders, 2004; appointed Hans Christian Andersen Australian ambassador by Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark, 2005; Children’s Language and Literature Achievement Award, Speech Pathology Association of Australia, 2007; honorary D.Litt., University of Technology, Sydney, 2011; a copy of Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes was the Australian government’s official gift to the U.K. royal baby Prince George, 2013; Nan Chauncy Award, 2017.
POLITICS: Labour. RELIGION: Christian.WRITINGS
Author’s work has been translated into several languages, including Chinese, Danish, Dutch, French, Germany, Hebrew, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish. Contributor to periodicals, education textbooks, and teacher references.
Possum Magic was adapted as an animated short film with teacher’s guide, Weston Woods/Scholastic, 2001. Where Is the Green Sheep? was adapted for the stage as The Green Sheep, produced by Windmill Performing Arts, c. 2007.
SIDELIGHTS
Beloved in her native Australia, Mem Fox has written dozens of picture books that are noted for successfully addressing universal themes while featuring authentic Australian settings, characters, and details. Praised for the simplicity and lyricism of her works as well as for their warmth and gentle humor, Fox is acknowledged for her understanding of children and direct expression of their emotions. As a prose stylist, she uses rhyme, rhythm, and repetition to captivate readers and her books are often lauded for their creative use of language. “Fox is a master at crafting tales that linger in memory over time,” a writer in Kirkus Reviews noted.
Fox is the author of Possum Magic, one of the best-known children’s books ever published by a native Australian. The story of a grandmother possum whose magic accidentally turns her grandchild invisible, Possum Magic has been followed by numerous other picture books—among them Wombat Divine and Where Is the Green Sheep? —that reveal her sly humor and enthusiasm for Aussie culture and history. Many of Fox’s books have also found a large following among U.S. readers: Time for Bed spent twelve months on best-seller lists and has been ranked by some critics as a modern picture-book classic.
A former educator, Fox also writes for adults, although these writings take the form of nonfiction rather than fiction. Her book Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever is designed to help parents of very young children inspire an interest in reading, while Radical Reflections: Passionate Opinions on Teaching, Learning, and Living addresses the concerns of older parents and teachers.
Fox was born in Australia in 1946, but moved with her missionary parents to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) at age six months. As she once recalled to SATA: “I grew up among black people, and until I was five or so, I believed I was black. I was the only white child at the mission school, blind to my own whiteness and absolutely astonished when the local authorities told my parents I would be required to attend a school for white children.” <start new> “So I was taken away and sent to a white school,” she explained in an autobiographical statement found on her home page, the Mem Fox website, “where I was extremely miserable and friendless for over a year. I spoke English with an Africa accent and was teased so much I used sit in the toilets and sob. At the age of six! I was at white schools from that time onwards.” <end new> Although she was a bit of a tomboy, Fox also loved to read, particularly nineteenth-century novels. “My parents had many, many books, mostly classics. I tore through them all. But the world of books—those books at any rate—was a fantasy world completely removed from my way of life.”
After completing her education in an all-white school, Fox traveled to England to attend drama school and become an actress. <start new> “My mother encouraged me early in my high school years to take up public speaking, for which I’m very thankful,” she revealed in the Mem Fox website. “I’ve had to make hundreds of speeches in my life, and so many in Australia that I think by now I must have spoken to everyone, all 22 million, face to face. I won a public speaking competition in Bulawayo when I was 16.” <end new> “I arrived in London in the heyday of Carnaby Street, the Beatles, miniskirts, pantyhose, and works like psychedelic,” she recalled. “Never exposed to television, I had no clue about what to expect on a daily basis on the street.” In London, Fox’s acting skills gave her a means to deal with the entrenched class prejudices she discovered within British society. “The whole [class] system, and the attitudes that went with it, disgusted me,” she recalled. “I played with it as though it were a diabolical toy. Because I can do accents well, I experimented: I’d go into a posh store and talk posh or Cockney depending on what reaction I was trying to elicit—dark fun that.”
While studying acting in London, Fox met Malcolm Fox, the man she would later marry, and they traveled to Australia as an adventure and made that continent their home. Fox eventually became a teacher and introduced her students to books written by Australians as well as to classics of English literature by Jane Austen and Thomas Hardy. She also started to write for children. Possum Magic was released in 1983 after being rejected by nine publishers who dubbed it “too Australian.” “The irony,” Fox maintained, “… is that Possum Magic is the best-selling children’s book in the history of Australia, has won a number of awards, and been published internationally.”
Featuring the gently repetitive, alliterative prose that would become characteristic of Fox, Possum Magic introduces young possum Hush and her Grandma Pos, who must search far and wide to find the food that will undo the spell of invisibility she accidentally cast on her grandchild. In addition to weaving a humorous fantasy tale, the picture book acquaints readers with Australian culture and cuisine, much of which takes on exotic aspects.
“I write ‘up’ to children, never ‘down,’” explained Fox. “I write to move children. All of my ideas for books come from my life. I frequently tell my students, ‘I’ve no imagination at all.’ Possum Magic came about because I was enraged that my daughter had no books to help her identify herself as an Australian, to help her feel proud of her country and heritage.”
In Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge, the first of Fox’s books to be published in the United States, she focuses on a small boy with a very long name (the name is that of the author’s own father). Helping an elderly friend named Miss Nancy cope with her failing memory, Wilfred listens to her stories as well as those of her friends in the local nursing home. Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge came out of my very close relationship with my grandfather who, like Miss Nancy in the book, lived to be ninety-six,” Fox noted.
Sophie recalls Fox’s early childhood and her African friends as it tells the story of a black girl who has a special bond with her grandfather. When the elderly man passes away Sophie keeps him alive in her heart by sharing his stories with her own children, producing a tale that Booklist contributor Henrietta M. Smith described as “quietly moving.” In contrast, Harriet, You’ll Drive Me Wild! introduces a mother and daughter who, although often at odds, ultimately have a loving relationship. Also in Booklist, Hazel Rochman noted that Fox relates “a scenario that nearly every young preschooler … will recognize” and the outbursts of pent-up anger in the book lead to reconciliation and a situation in which both parent and child “can be open about their feelings.” Harriet, You’ll Drive Me Wild! was welcomed by a Horn Book reviewer who praised “its acceptance of both a child’s penchant for trouble and a parent’s occasional outburst—both happen, ‘just like that,’ and both will be forgiven.”
Fox creates a book that Horn Book contributor Betty Carter praised as “perfectly attuned to a toddler’s sense of playful discovery” with Where Is the Green Sheep? Her easy-to-read text introduces youngsters to a flock of rambunctious sheep pre-dyed-in-the-wool: red, blue, and yellow sheep flying kites, skateboarding, partying, jumping from diving boards, and even snorkeling. The elusive green sheep is nowhere to be found, however, until readers reach the final page and find it fast asleep. A Kirkus Reviews critic described Where Is the Green Sheep? as “a perfectly simple text with a patterned language and rhythm just right for toddlers,” while Booklist critic Ilene Cooper dubbed it a “neat and satisfying wedding of text and art” in which Judy Horacek’s humorous line-and-watercolor artwork adds to the fun.
A popular choice for bedtime reading, Tell Me about Your Day Today centers on an imaginative youngster and his stuffed animal companions that share his bedroom. Before going to sleep, the youngster gathers Blue Horse, Greedy Goose, and Fat Rabbit to discuss a thunderstorm that rolled through earlier, causing no end of trouble for the toys. Astute readers will recognize that the animals’ accounts actually reflect the experiences of their young owner, and “his recollections tie all their adventures together,” according to Booklist critic Carolyn Phelan. “Fox’s use of rhyme and repetition has a flowing cadence that moves briskly along,” a contributor in Kirkus Reviews noted, and Julie Roach explained in School Library Journal that Tell Me about Your Day Today “celebrates the comforts of sharing a story together and a day well spent.”
Fox’s sing-song rhyming text for Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes is paired with Helen Oxenbury’s engaging art. With every turn of the page, readers greet a new pair of babies, each infant possessing the requisite number of fingers and toes while also representing a range of ethnicities and cultures. As each new infant duo appears, the pages become increasingly crowded until eight infants are in view. Finally one more infant is introduced to the group: it is the narrator’s baby and in addition to fingers and toes it also has a kiss from Mommy that sets it apart from the playschool pack. In Booklist Gillian Engberg dubbed Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes “a standout for its beautiful simplicity” and Jessica Bruder wrote in the New York Times Book Review that its “words roll out easy and familiar, as if they’d been handed down to children for decades.”
Fox’s Two Little Monkeys also features a lively, rhyming narrative that follows simian pals Cheeky and Chee as their exciting romp around the savanna is interrupted by a prowling jaguar. “The repetition, lively meter, and ample drama in Fox’s … verse will easily keep young readers’ attention at storytime,” maintained a reviewer in Publishers Weekly. Another animal-centered book, Let’s Count Goats “uses irreverent couplets and a screwball cast of [characters] for its humor,” according to another Publishers Weekly contributor. Goats do not merely nibble on grass in Fox’s world; instead, one nattily attired goat hustles along city streets on his way to the office while another plays a jaunty tune on the trumpet. “The lilting rhymes nicely capture the building energy,” a writer observed in appraising Let’s Count Goats for Kirkus Reviews.
Fox deals with more villainous subject matter in Tough Boris as hideous pirate Boris von der Borch snatches center stage. Narrated by the pirate’s cabin boy, the book extols Boris’s piratical virtues: he is “tough,” “scruffy,” “greedy,” and the like, but this grim exterior hides a soft spot that appears when his beloved parrot dies and Tough Boris sheds a tear. Praising the book as a “celebration of a glorious villain,” Booklist contributor Rochman also noted that Tough Boris “is full of surprises, both in the simple text and in the dramatic underlying story” revealed in the illustrations by Kathryn Brown.
In A Particular Cow, Fox treats readers to what a Publishers Weekly critic characterized as a “read-aloud gem” that “contains an absurdly appropriate plot.” In Fox’s story, readers meet a cow that lives a very regimented life. Every Saturday the cow goes on the same walk with the same result: nothing out of the ordinary ever happens. One day, however, the bovine gets tangled in a clothesline full of underwear that has been placed in her path. The cow’s fall into a mail cart sets the cart into motion and from there everything falls into disarray. Fox’s story features the “slapstick humor and verbal dexterity” that is known to “delight youngsters,” according to the Publishers Weekly critic, while in School Library Journal Marge Loch Wouters quipped that “udders and undies combine to make [A Particular Cow] … a sure hit.”
Fox presents an original fairytale in The Goblin and the Empty Chair, which features artwork by Leo and Diane Dillon. Frightened by his grotesque visage, a goblin lives a solitary existence in the woods year after lonely year. When he happens upon a family so filled with grief that they cannot work, the goblin returns under the cover of night to complete their chores. Learning of the goblin’s hard work, the family invites him into their home to share a meal; the goblin must overcome his fears to take a place at their table. “Acceptance and healing are less common picture book themes; Fox … handles them with particular grace” in The Goblin and the Empty Chair, a reviewer observed in Publishers Weekly.
<start new> I’m an Immigrant Too! (which was originally published in Fox’s native land as I’m Australian Too!) underlines Australia’s history as a land of immigrants. It packs “eons of history into jaunty verses,” wrote Amina Chaudhri in Booklist, “one for each kind of Australian family represented in the story.” “The most difficult part was to write a charming book with happy rhyme and rhythm, lots of great repetition, so that children would just adore it for itself—not just for its message, but for the rolling happiness of it,” Fox told Libby Morse in an author’s question-and-answer session found in Publishers Weekly. “If you’re writing a children’s book to teach children anything, it just dies. That’s not what children’s books are for. Time and time again you see adults try to bring up other people’s children by writing books with messages. And it’s nauseating. Children are so smart. And if there’s one thing they loathe, it’s being preached to.” “Fox,” explained Amy Nolan in School Library Journal, “touches on current immigrants, such as those from Syria and Afghanistan, and the violence they have escaped in an age-appropriate manner.”
Ironically, during the period that I’m Australian Too! was being published, Fox herself was detained and questioned by security forces in Los Angeles while she was on her way to attend a conference in Wisconsin. “Fox said she was questioned over her visa, despite having travelled to America 116 times before without incident,” explained Bonnie Malkin in the London Guardian. “She was eventually granted access to the country.” “Fox also said she feared Australia was heading down the same unwelcoming pathway as the US appeared to be,” stated a contributor to the Australian ABC news website. “‘I’m very frightened that Australia will go the same way as America, with extremists in power, racist hatred, ghastly speech against decent people,’ she said. ‘I have written a new book which is about, ironically, welcoming strangers to a strange land — Australia — and I wrote it because I perceived that Australia was losing its gorgeous warmth of character.'” <end new>
In addition to writing and speaking to groups, Fox travels around the globe as a literacy consultant. “Children need an abundance of stunning books to ease the development of their literacy,” she commented in Horn Book. “My aim is for children to become literate without realizing what’s happening to them. This can come about only if the material they read is amongst the best available, with terrific plots, great characters, magnificent themes, outrageous humor, clear settings, superb illustrations, and lastly—my own favorite—fine writing, which includes the perfection of Shakespearean and biblical rhythms within ordinary Australian prose.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, March 1, 1994, Hazel Rochman, review of Tough Boris, p. 1269; October 1, 1994, Janice Del Negro, review of Sophie, p. 332; June 1, 1996, Susan Dove Lempke, review of Zoo-Looking, p. 1731; October 15, 1996, Ilene Cooper, review of Wombat Divine, p. 434; October 1, 1997, Linda Perkins, review of Whoever You Are, p. 334; October 15, 1997, Susan Dove Lempke, review of Straight Line Wonder, p. 414; February 1, 1998, Hazel Rochman, review of Boo to a Goose, p. 922; October 1, 1998, Sue-Ellen Beauregard, review of Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge, p. 349; November 15, 1999, Susan Dove Lempke, review of Sleepy Bears, p. 634; March 1, 2000, Hazel Rochman, review of Harriet, You’ll Drive Me Wild!, p. 1250; February 15, 2001, Henrietta M. Smith, review of Sophie, p. 1160; August, 2001, Hazel Rochman, review of Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever, p. 2067; April 15, 2002, Ilene Cooper, review of The Magic Hat, p. 1408; March 1, 2004, Ilene Cooper, review of Where Is the Green Sheep?, p. 1193; November 15, 2008, Gillian Engberg, review of Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, p. 45; May 15, 2009, Gillian Engberg, review of Hello Baby!, p. 46; August 1, 2009, Daniel Kraus, review of The Goblin and the Empty Chair, p. 78; October 1, 2010, review of Diane Foote, review of Let’s Count Goats, p. 94; March 15, 2012, Diane Foote, review of Two Little Monkeys, p. 67; November 1, 2012, Carolyn Phelan, review of Tell Me about Your Day Today, p. 78; August 1, 2013, Ilene Cooper, review of Good Night, Sleep Tight, p. 87; December 15, 2015, Connie Fletcher, review of Nellie Belle, p. 59; December 1, 2017, Carolyn Phelan, review of Ducks Away!, p. 64; October 1, 2018, Amina Chaudhri, review of I’m an Immigrant Too!, p. 82.
Guardian (London, England), February 25, 2017, Bonnie Malkin, “Australian Children’s Author Mem Fox Detained by US Border Control: ‘I Sobbed like a Baby.'”
Horn Book, May-June, 1990, Mem Fox, “Writing Picture Books: A Love/Hate Relationship,” pp. 288-296; May-June, 1994, Elizabeth S. Watson, review of Tough Boris, p. 313; March, 2000, review of Harriet, You’ll Drive Me Wild!, p. 184; May-June, 2004, Betty Carter, review of Where Is the Green Sheep?, p. 312; January-February, 2009, Kitty Flynn, review of Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, p. 78; September 7, 2009, review of The Goblin and the Empty Chair, p. 45; July-August, 2012, Kitty Flynn, review of Two Little Monkeys, p. 93; May-June, 2013, Christine M. Heppermann, review of Yoo-Hoo, Ladybug!, p. 60; July-August, 2013, review of Good Night, Sleep Tight, p. 103.
Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2002, review of The Magic Hat, p. 334; March 15, 2004, review of Where Is the Green Sheep?, p. 269; April 1, 2009, review of Hello Baby!; September 1, 2009, review of The Goblin and the Empty Chair; September 1, 2010, review of Let’s Count Goats!; March 15, 2012, review of Two Little Monkeys; August 1, 2012, review of Tell Me about Your Day Today; November 15, 2015, review of Nellie Belle; October 15, 2017, review of Ducks Away!
Library Journal, August 2001, Margaret Cardwell, review of Reading Magic, p. 148.
New York Times Book Review, November 9, 2009, Jessica Bruder, review of Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, p. 39; August 26, 2012, Sara London, review of Tell Me about Your Day Today.
Publishers Weekly, August 9, 1993, review of Time for Bed, p. 475; October 10, 1994, review of Sophie, p. 70; June 17, 1996, review of Zoo-Looking, p. 64; August 19, 1996, review of A Bedtime Story, p. 67; September 30, 1996, review of Wombat Divine, p. 90; August 18, 1997, review of The Straight Line Wonder, p. 93; November 3, 1997, review of Whoever You Are, p. 84; March 2, 1998, review of Boo to a Goose, p. 67; July 19, 1999, review of Sleepy Bears, p. 193; September 27, 1999, review of Wombat Divine, p. 64; March 20, 2000, review of Harriet, You’ll Drive Me Wild!, p. 91; May 29, 2000, review of Feathers and Fools, p. 84; February 11, 2002, review of The Magic Hat, p. 184; March 8, 2004, review of Where Is the Green Sheep?, p. 72; January 24, 2005, review of Hunwick’s Egg, p. 242; July 17, 2006, review of A Particular Cow, p. 155; October 29, 2007, review of Where the Giant Sleeps, p. 54; September 7, 2009, review of The Goblin and the Empty Chair, p. 45; October 4, 2010, review of Let’s Count Goats!, p. 43; March 12, 2012, review of Two Little Monkeys, p. 57; July 16, 2012, review of Tell Me about Your Day Today, p. 168; May 20, 2013, review of Good Night, Sleep Tight, p. 56; September 28, 2015, review of Nellie Belle, p. 88; October 30, 2017, review of Ducks Away!, p. 78; October 23, 2018, Libby Morse, “Q & A with Mem Fox.”
School Library Journal, April, 2000, Kate McClelland, review of Harriet, You’ll Drive Me Wild!, p. 104; September, 2001, Shauna Yusko, review of Reading Magic, p. 262; December, 2001, Erin Caskey, review of Possum Magic, p. 67; April, 2002, Wendy Lukehart, review of The Magic Hat, p. 110; February, 2003, Lee Bock, review of Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge, p. 96; February, 2003, Lee Bock, review of Whoever You Are, p. 96; March, 2004, Andrew Medlar, review of Koala Lou, p. 67; April, 2004, Blair Christolon, review of Where Is the Green Sheep?, p. 110; March, 2005, Linda L. Walkins, review of Huwick’s Egg, p. 171; September, 2006, Marge Loch-Wouters, review of A Particular Cow, p. 171; November, 2007, Kathy Krasniewicz, review of Where the Giant Sleeps, p. 90; December, 2008, Amy Lilien-Harper, review of Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, p. 90; April, 2013, Kathleen Kelly MacMillan, review of Yoo-Hoo, Ladybug!, p. 130; July, 2013, review of Good Night, Sleep Tight, p. 62; August, 2014, Marge Loch-Wouters, review of Baby Bedtime, p. 70; January, 2016, Anna Haase, review of Nellie Belle, p. 65; February, 2017, Amelia Jenkins, review of This & That, p. 68; February, 2018, Marianne Saccardi, review of Ducks Away!, p. 58; September, 2018, Amy Nolan, review of I’m an Immigrant Too!, p. 90.
Sunday Times (London, England), October 18, 2008, Nicolette Jones, review of Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, p. 49.
Teacher Librarian, June, 2000, Shirley Lewis, review of Harriet, You’ll Drive Me Wild!, p. 49.
ONLINE
ABC, https://www.abc.net.au/ (February 25, 2017), “Mem Fox, Australian Author, Gets Apology after Being Wrongfully Detained at LA Airport.”
Booktopia, https://www.booktopia.com.au/ (January 16, 2019), author profile.
Brisbane Writers Festival website, https://bwf.org.au/ (January 16, 2019), author profile.
Gobblefunked, http://www.gobblefunked.com/ (November 27, 2015), Sophie Suelzle, “Mem Fox and Judy Horacek.”
Mem Fox website, https://memfox.com (January 16, 2019), author profile.
Reading Rockets, http://www.readingrockets.org/ (January 16, 2019), “Meet Mem Fox.”
Spelfabet, https://www.spelfabet.com.au/ (November, 2018), “Fact and Fiction with Mem Fox.”
Sydney Morning Herald Online, http://www.smh.com.au/ (January 4, 2014), Mark Dapin, “Mem Fox: The Long, Short (and Green) of It.”*
MEM FOX is the author of many acclaimed books, including Possum Magic, Koala Lou, Time for Bed, and, for adults, Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever. She lives in Adelaide, Australia.
Mem Fox
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Merrion Frances Fox
Mem Fox speaking to audience, 2014
Born
Merrion Frances Partridge
Pen name
"Mem" Fox
Occupation
Author
Nationality
Australian
Notable awards
Nan Chauncy Award, 2017
Merrion Frances "Mem" Fox, AM (born Merrion Frances Partridge on 5 March 1946) is an Australian writer of children's books and an educationalist specialising in literacy. Fox is semi-retired and lives in Adelaide, South Australia.[1]
Contents
1
Career
1.1
Possum Magic
1.2
Guess What?
2
Personal life
3
Opinion on childcare
4
Awards and recognition
5
Works
5.1
Children's books
5.2
Non-fiction
6
References
7
External links
Career[edit]
In 1981, while working in drama, Fox decided to retrain in literacy studies. She said: "Literacy has become the great focus of my life – it's my passion, my battle and my mission and my exhaustion."[1] She has published books on literacy aimed at children, their parents, teachers and educators. She held the position of Associate Professor, Literacy Studies, in the School of Education at Flinders University until her retirement in 1996.[1] Since her retirement from teaching, Fox travels around the world visiting many countries and doing presentations and speaking on children's books and literacy issues.[1] Following an aggressive interrogation by US immigration officials on a trip in February 2017 to deliver a keynote speech in Milwaukee, Fox said that she would probably never visit the US again.[2]
Possum Magic[edit]
Main article: Possum Magic
Fox wrote her first draft for the internationally acclaimed Possum Magic in 1978 during a course in children's literature at Flinders University. Nine publishers rejected the draft over a five-year period. When it was accepted by Omnibus Books in Adelaide they asked Fox to reduce the 4½ page book, then entitled Hush the Invisible Mouse, by two-thirds and to change the mice to Australian animals to place emphasis on her Australian theme. Possum Magic is now one of the most recognised picture books in Australia and has sold over 3 million copies worldwide.[3]
The two main characters in Possum Magic are Grandma Poss and Hush. Hush has been made invisible by her Grandma to protect her from the dangers of the Australian bush. The story details the duo's adventures as they tour Australia searching for the secret to Hush's visibility. It is a rhythmical story of Australia's varied landscapes and the animals that live in them.
Guess What?[edit]
The book Guess What? ranks number 66 on the American list of the 100 most challenged books 1990 to 2000.[4] Groups and agencies can challenge a book to prevent it from being available to be read by the general public.
Personal life[edit]
Fox was born Merrion Frances Partridge in Melbourne, Australia, but grew up in Southern Rhodesia.[1] Her parents were missionaries and she attended Hope Fountain mission school, near Bulawayo. When she was eighteen, she went to England where she was accepted into an English Drama school.[1]
In 1969, she married Malcolm Fox, a teacher.[1] The following year they returned to Australia and in 1971 she gave birth to her only child Chloë Fox,[5] a former ALP member of the South Australian Parliament.
She dislikes her given name, and adopted the shortened form "Mem" at around the age of 13. She has never taken the step of legally changing her name, so remains "Merrion" for official purposes.[6]
Opinion on childcare[edit]
Fox attracted controversy in 2008 after claiming entrusting very young children to childcare is child abuse. Her comments were generally supported by the Australian Family Association based on research on the importance of time with and attention from parents, though they did describe Fox's comments as "perhaps a little bit unfair". Parent groups like Career Mums described Fox's comments as "irresponsible" as they didn't take into account the quality of care received by children, the social and cognitive development which goes with exposure to professional early childhood educators, and the economic pressures that can force parents to return to work.[7]
Awards and recognition[edit]
Won – New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Ethel Turner Prize for young people's literature for Possum Magic (1984)
Won – Dromkeen Medal[8] (1990)
Won – Member of the Order of Australia for "services to children's literature" (1993)[9]
Won – COOL Award for Possum Magic (1994)
Won – Centenary Medal[10] (2001)
Honorary doctorates – Wollongong and Flinders Universities, Australia in 1996 and 2004.[11][12]
Finalist – Archibald Prize for a portrait of Fox, titled The Storyteller by the artist Henny Van den Wildenberg (2004)
Works[edit]
Children's books[edit]
Possum Magic (1983) illustrated by Julie Vivas
Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge (1984) illustrated by Julie Vivas
A Cat called Kite (1985) illustrated by K. Hawley
Zoo-Looking (1986) illustrated by Rodney McRae
Arabella, the Smallest Girl in the World (1986) illustrated by Vicky Kitanov
Hattie and the Fox (1986) illustrated by Patricia Mullins
Just Like That (1986) with Kilmeny Niland
Sail Away: The Ballad of Skip and Nell (1986) illustrated by Pamela Lofts
The Straight Line Wonder (1987) illustrated by Meredith Thomas
A Bedtime Story (1987) illustrated by Sisca Verwoert
Goodnight Sleep Tight (1988) illustrated by Helen Semmler
Guess What? (1988) with Vivienne Goodman
Koala Lou (1988) illustrated by Pamela Lofts
With Love at Christmas (1988) illustrated by Fay Plamka
Night Noises (1989) illustrated by Terry Denton
Feathers and Fools (1989) illustrated by Lorraine Ellis
Shoes from Grandpa (1989) illustrated by Patricia Mullins
Sophie (1989) illustrated by Craig Smith
Time for Bed (1993) illustrated by Jane Dyer
Tough Boris (1994) illustrated by Kathryn Brown
Wombat Divine (1995) illustrated by Kerry Argent
A Bedtime Story (1996) illustrated by Elivia Savadier
Boo to a Goose (1996) illustrated by David Miller
Whoever You Are (1998) illustrated by Leslie Staub
Sleepy Bears (1999) illustrated by Kerry Argent
Harriet, You'll Drive Me Wild! (2000) illustrated by Marla Frazee
The Magic Hat (2002) illustrated by Tricia Tusa
Where Is the Green Sheep? (2004) illustrated by Judy Horacek
Hunwick's Egg (2005) illustrated by Pamela Lofts
A Particular Cow (2006) illustrated by Terry Denton
Where the Giant Sleeps (2007) pictures by Vladimir Radunsky
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes (2008) illustrated by Helen Oxenbury
Hello, Baby (2009) illustrated by Steve Jenkins
A Giraffe in the Bath (March 2010) with Olivia Rawson, illustrated by Kerry Argent
Let's Count Goats (October 2010) illustrated by Jan Thomas
The Little Dragon (April 2011) illustrated by Roland Harvey
Two Little Monkeys (May 2012) illustrated by Jill Barton
Tell Me About Your Day Today (2012) illustrated by Lauren Stringer
Good Night, Sleep Tight (2012) illustrated by Judy Horacek
Yoo Hoo, Ladybird! (2013) illustrated by Laura Ljungkvist
Baby Bedtime (2013) illustrated by Emma Quay
Nellie Belle (2015) illustrated by Mike Austin
This & That (2015) illustrated by Judy Horacek
Ducks Away! (2016) illustrated by Judy Horacek[13]
I'm Australian Too (2017) illustrated by Ronojoy Ghosh
Bonnie and Ben Rhyme Again (October 2018) illustrated by Judy Horacek
Non-fiction[edit]
Thereby Hangs a Tale (1980)
How to Teach Drama to Infants Without Really Crying (Australian title) (1984) (Teaching Drama to Young Children (USA title) (1987))
Mem's the Word (1990 – Australian title) (Dear Mem Fox (1992 – USA title)
English essentials : the wouldn't-be-without-it guide to writing well (1993) with Lyn Wilkinson
Memories : an autobiography (1992)
Radical reflections : passionate opinions on teaching, learning, and living (1993)
Reading Magic: How Your Child Can Learn to Read Before School - and Other Read-aloud Miracles (2001)
English essentials : the wouldn't-be-without-it guide to writing well (revised 2009) with Lyn Wilkinson
Australian children's author Mem Fox detained by US border control: 'I sobbed like a baby'
Author of Possum Magic was aggressively questioned over her visa status and later received an apology for her treatment by border guards
• Mem Fox tells her story: ‘In that moment I loathed America’
Bonnie Malkin
@bonniemalkin
Sat 25 Feb 2017 02.38 GMT
Last modified on Wed 20 Sep 2017 10.39 BST
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The experience left Fox feeling like she had been ‘physically assaulted’. Photograph: Sydney Writers Festival
The Australian children’s book author Mem Fox has suggested she might never return to the US after she was detained and insulted by border control agents at Los Angeles airport.
Fox, who is famous worldwide for her bestselling books including Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes and Possum Magic, was en route to a conference in Milwaukee earlier this month when she was stopped.
British Muslim teacher denied entry to US on school trip
Read more
She told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation she was detained for one hour and 40 minutes and questioned by border agents for 15 minutes in front of a room full of people – an experience that left her feeling like she had been physically assaulted.
“I have never in my life been spoken to with such insolence, treated with such disdain, with so many insults and with so much gratuitous impoliteness,” Fox said.
“I felt like I had been physically assaulted which is why, when I got to my hotel room, I completely collapsed and sobbed like a baby, and I’m 70 years old.”
The author attributed the aggressive questioning to border police who had been “turbocharged” by Donald Trump’s proposed travel ban.
Fox said she was questioned over her visa, despite having travelled to America 116 times before without incident. She was eventually granted access to the country.
After lodging a complaint over her treatment with the Australian embassy in Washington and the US embassy in Canberra, Fox received an emailed apology from US officials.
Fox said she was shocked by her treatment and “couldn’t imagine” returning to the US.
Fox has written more than 30 children’s books, including the hits Where is the Green Sheep? and Time for Bed. Possum Magic has sold more than three million copies and is the bestselling picture book in Australian history.
This story was corrected on 27 February to clarify that Mem Fox was not questioned for two hours.
Mem Fox, Australian author, gets apology after being wrongfully detained at LA airport
Updated 25 Feb 2017, 12:33pm
Photo: Author Mem Fox has made many trips to the US but doubts she will ever go there again. (AAP: Tracey Nearmy)
Related Story: Mem Fox encourages parents to read to children
Related Story: New Trump travel ban to spare green card holders: Homeland Security chief
Australian author Mem Fox has received a written apology from the United States after what she said was a traumatic detention by immigration officials at Los Angeles Airport.
Key points:
Author says she collapsed and sobbed after her immigration ordeal
Her complaint to US embassy officials brought a swift written apology
She expressed fears Australia might also become less welcoming
Fox, who was questioned by Customs and Border Protection officers for two hours earlier this month as she was on her way to Milwaukee to address a conference, said she collapsed and sobbed at her hotel after she was released.
She said the border agents appeared to have been given "turbocharged power" by an executive order signed by President Donald Trump to "humiliate and insult" a room full of people they detained to check visas.
That executive order was eventually halted by Federal Courts and it was expected a new order would be signed this week, designed to avoid the confusion caused by the original.
"I have never in my life been spoken to with such insolence, treated with such disdain, with so many insults and with so much gratuitous impoliteness," Fox said.
"The entire interview took place with me standing, with my back to a room full of people in total public hearing and view — it was disgraceful.
"I felt like I had been physically assaulted which is why, when I got to my hotel room, I completely collapsed and sobbed like a baby, and I'm 70 years old."
Mem Fox on Swan Songs
The author has seen enormous success, but has also had her share of rejections and personal trials. She speaks to the ABC's Julia Baird about resilience and her natural enthusiasm.
Fox, whose books include classics such as Possum Magic and Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, said she was questioned about her visa status, even though she had travelled to the United States 116 times previously without incident.
"My heart was pounding so hard as I was waiting to be interviewed, because I was observing what was happening to everybody else in the room," she said.
"They accused me of coming in on the wrong visa and they were totally wrong about that.
"The person who interviewed me was heavy with weaponry, was totally dressed in black with the word 'police' in hand-sized letters across his chest."
Author complained and got 'charming' response
The author lodged a complaint with the Australian embassy in Washington, and later one with the United States embassy in Canberra to which she received an emailed letter of apology.
"I said any decent American would have been shocked to the core by what had happened, it was so dreadful," Fox said.
Popular books by Mem Fox:
Possum Magic (1983)
Koala Lou (1988)
Time for Bed (1993)
Tough Boris (1994)
Sleepy Bears (1999)
Where is the Green Sheep? (2004)
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes (2008)
I'm Australian Too (2017)
"And I had an absolutely charming letter from them within hours of my email hitting their desk."
The author said she was unlikely to visit the United States again despite the friendliness of ordinary Americans.
"At the moment I'm in so much shock about it, I can't imagine going back to the states," she said.
"I'd hate not to go back to the states because it's been so good to me and Americans in general are not [like] the border police at LA airport."
She said the treatment of others in the airport holding room, including Iranians, Taiwanese and a Scandinavian parent with a small child, was just as poor, and all appeared to eventually have been released.
"I thought: 'How can human beings treat other vulnerable human beings in this fashion, in public, in full view of everybody?'
Embassy officials have a policy of not discussing individual cases due to privacy requirements.
The author's treatment by US border officials was condemned by many Australians on social media and her name was trending on Twitter.
Fox worried about Australian attitudes
Fox also said she feared Australia was heading down the same unwelcoming pathway as the US appeared to be.
"I'm very frightened that Australia will go the same way as America, with extremists in power, racist hatred, ghastly speech against decent people," she said.
"I have written a new book which is about, ironically, welcoming strangers to a strange land — Australia — and I wrote it because I perceived that Australia was losing its gorgeous warmth of character in our attitude to newcomers.
"The irony is that this happened to me at about the same time as I was about to publish this 'welcome to Australia' book."
Mem Fox
"When I say to a parent, "read to a child", I don't want it to sound like medicine. I want it to sound like chocolate"
Mem Fox
Mem Fox Author Bio
Mem Fox was born in Australia, grew up in Africa, studied drama in England, and returned to Adelaide, Australia in 1970, where she has lived with her husband, Malcolm, and daughter Chloe, happily ever after.
Mem Fox is Australia's most highly regarded picture-book author. Her first book, Possum Magic, is the best selling children's book ever in Australia, with sales of over three and a half million. And in the USA Time for Bed and Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge have each sold over a million copies. Time for Bed is on Oprah's list of the twenty best children's books of all time.
Mem has written over thirty picture books for children and five non-fiction books for adults, including the best-selling Reading Magic, aimed at parents of very young children. Her book Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes beautifully illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, was on the New York Times bestseller lists for 16 weeks in 2008/2009.
Mem Fox was an Associate Professor in Literacy Studies at Flinders University in Adelaide (Australia), where she taught teachers for twenty four years until her early retirement in 1996. She has received many civic awards, honours and accolades in Australia, including two honorary doctorates. She has visited the United States over one hundred times, mostly in her role as a literacy expert although she is also a well-known author in America. She is an influential international consultant in literacy, but she pretends to sit around writing full time.
Q & A with Mem Fox
By Libby Morse | Oct 23, 2018
Comments
Mem Fox’s latest picture book, I’m an Immigrant, Too! (published as I’m an Australian, Too! in her native country), is full of hope and cheer—a story narrated largely by refugee children who have found happy new lives all over Australia. But in a phone interview, Fox told PW that she originally wrote the book “out of despair and anger” over Australia’s treatment of refugees and asylum seekers, many of whom have been held in offshore detention centers. While her previous books have gone through as many as 40 drafts over the course of several years, I’m an Immigrant, Too “just poured out of me,” Fox said. “It was a four-draft book, which for me is incredibly fast.”
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In February 2017 you had your own personal experience with immigration: on your way to a literacy conference in Milwaukee, you were detained by U.S. immigration at the Los Angeles airport. It made headlines around the world. What’s your perspective on the event now?
I actually hate talking about this—it’s so traumatic, it’s like jumping back into a battlefield. As a result of my experience, I received so many letters from people, mostly Australians but others as well, who had experienced worse treatment—particularly in L.A., which is where most Australians land. The States needs to look at its tourism situation. The word around Australia is, “Don’t go there. They’ll get you for nothing.”
What is the most difficult part of telling the immigrant story to children?
The most difficult part was to write a charming book with happy rhyme and rhythm, lots of great repetition, so that children would just adore it for itself—not just for its message, but for the rolling happiness of it. If you’re writing a children’s book to teach children anything, it just dies. That’s not what children’s books are for. Time and time again you see adults try to bring up other people’s children by writing books with messages. And it’s nauseating.
Children are so smart. And if there’s one thing they loathe, it’s being preached to. They can see through that faster than you can see through clean glass.
For U.S. audiences, the title of your book has been changed from I’m an Australian, Too! to I’m an Immigrant, Too! Do you think that adds a new level of meaning?
Having a title change in the States did send a different message probably—a clearer message that we have to look at ourselves and say, “Hang on, where did we all come from?” There can be no hierarchy of “I came here first and therefore I’m a real Australian or a real American.” The problem is that immigrants are being used as a kind of battering ram. It’s just heartbreaking. [In the U.S.] when [migrant] children were separated from their parents, it was completely cruel and unnecessary. But when the system broke down and the children and parents couldn’t be matched up afterwards, that was the most horrifying thing—it was absolutely appalling. I think I’m an Immigrant, Too! speaks most clearly to the separation of the children and parents. The world couldn’t believe it.
Fox at Blair Athol North B-7 School in Adelaide, Australia. In June the school sent her a video recording of the students reading her book, and she decided to visit them for an event in August.
It’s interesting how your illustrator, Ronojoy Ghosh, focuses on characters’ everyday lives—there are no parents clutching a child to their hearts saying, “We’re free!” On the pages where a child talks about being a refugee from Syria, he’s just waiting at the bus with his father, who’s looking at his phone.
And the Somali kids are on scooters and skateboards by the river. What we both wanted to show was normality and the similarity between us. We’re just human beings going about our daily lives.
But for me, my favorite page was about the refugee girl [the spread shows a child by the gray, barbed-wire topped wall of a detention center]. In Australia, we’ve parked refugees and asylum seekers on Manus Island and Nauru where they cannot escape. We’re going through hell as I speak, in fact, because the kids [on Nauru] are on the verge of dying from mental illness. This is beyond cruelty. And it’s all political. [Ghosh shows] this little girl inside a detention center, and she wants to be a vet. She has a bird cage in which she’s been keeping a dove, but she’s let that dove go free—and she’s still in a cage. The juxtaposition of that is so simple... It doesn’t beat a big drum. It’s exquisite.
You’ve noted that the book is about an idealized version of Australia—“the country we used to be.” What has been the reaction in your home country?
I wrote, “We open doors to strangers./ Yes, everyone’s friend.” But we stopped opening doors to strangers—well, we open doors to people who are “highly qualified” and forget that refugees can contribute, too. When we block the door to those people, we forget what they’re running from, what the experiences they’ve been through. It’s just unspeakable what these people are running from. And we close the door to them. I just don’t see how we can do that.
The last two verses of the book fit exactly into our national anthem, and when I’ve read the book, I’ve sung those verses, and without fail people have joined in and cried. I’ve had guys come up to me and say accusingly—amusingly—“You’ve made me cry.” When you make grown men weep then you think, “I must have written something worthwhile.”
You noted on your blog that before this book, you hadn’t written for 10 months. Was that unusual for you?
I spend very little of my life writing. I spend less time on writing than I spend on anything else—reading, walking on the beach, having coffee with friends, seeing my grandson. I write very, very rarely—I think because my subconscious does a lot of it. You start something, you put it aside, you think you’ve forgotten about it and actually your subconscious is working on it.
What’s next for you?
The team of Time for Bed [1993], Jane Dyer and I, reunited after 26 years and this time next year we’ll have a new book coming out: Roly Poly. It’s not just the text I’m excited about. The illustrations break completely new ground—I don’t want to say anything more about it. It’s just exquisite. I’ll have another book coming out in Australia [at the same time] called A Little Star, with illustrations by Freya Blackwood.
By then, I’ll be six months off 74. I don’t want time to fly too fast, but I cannot wait for these next 12 months to go!
I’m an Immigrant Too!: An Australian Story by Mem Fox, illus. by Ronojoy Ghosh. Beach Lane, $17.99 Oct. ISBN 978-1-5344-3602-2
Mem Fox is an educator and international literacy expert, and her many acclaimed picture books for young children include Yoo-Hoo, Ladybug!; Hello Baby!; Baby Bedtime; I’m an Immigrant Too; the bestselling modern classics Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes and Time for Bed; and, for adults, Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever. She lives in Adelaide, Australia. Visit her at MemFox.net.
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Mem Fox is a retired Associate Professor of Literacy Studies at Flinders University, and also Australia's most highly regarded picture-book author. Her first publication, Possum Magic, is the best-selling children's book in Australia. It is still available in hard-back after 35 years. She has written over forty books for children including the internationally best-selling Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge, Time for Bed, Where Is The Green Sheep?, and Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes. Mem has also written several non-fiction books for adults, including her renowned book for parents: Reading Magic: how your child can learn to read before school. She lives in Adelaide but travels constantly as an advocate for literacy and literature. Her latest book is I’m Australian Too.
Mem Fox was born in Melbourne, grew up in Africa, went to drama school in England, and came back to Australia in 1970, aged 22.
In 1983 Mem became Australia’s best-selling writer. Possum Magic, her first book, is still available in hardback after 34 years and has become a beacon of children’s literature for millions of Australian families. She has written over 40 children’s books and several non-fiction books for adults. Her books have been translated into twenty-one languages, and many of them have been international best sellers.
Mem is a retired Associate Professor of Literacy Studies from Flinders University, South Australia, where she taught teachers for 24 years. She has received many civic honours and awards, and three honorary doctorates.
Her latest book: I’m Australian Too, takes her back to where she started: her passion for Australia. She hopes it will spark spirited discussions about Australian-ness, create an awareness of Australian immigration over the centuries, and begin to calm the rising racism in this country.
All about Mem – too much information?
I come from a long line of preachers and teachers on my mother’s side of the family; and atheists, teachers and journalists on the other side. It would have been surprising had I not become a university graduate, let alone a speaker and writer. My maternal grandmother graduated from Sydney University in 1908 at a time when it was extremely rare for women to have had the opportunity to do so. My mother followed in her footsteps by graduating from the same university in 1935.
My grandmother Pearl, and mother Nan, on their graduation days.
I was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1946, but left at the age of six months to go to Africa with my parents.
Me with my mum, Nancy, and my dad, Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge
My parents were missionaries. My father was the director of the teaching training school on Hope Fountain mission, about 15kms outside the city of Bulawayo, in Zimbabwe, which used to be called Rhodesia. I lived on the mission from 1946-1965, when I went to drama school in London. And what a contrasting world that was!
Me on the mission see-saw in 1952
In my first year at the mission school I was the only white child so all my close friends were Africans. We learned to write by drawing our letters in the red earth with our fingers. Later, we graduated to writing squeakily on slates.
Now, of course, I write on a computer, an i-Pad and a smart phone, but I still use a pencil and paper whenever I have a writing problem to solve. My brain loves it when I write in pencil.
When the authorities found out that I was at a black school they told my parents it was against the law for me to be there, so I was taken away and sent to a white school, where I was extremely miserable and friendless for over a year. I spoke English with an Africa accent and was teased so much I used sit in the toilets and sob. At the age of six! I was at white schools from that time onwards.
My father’s name—Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge—is also the title of my second book. Miss Nancy, in the same book, is my mother; the rest of Miss Nancy’s name comes from the names of my two sisters, both of whom are younger than I am: Jan Delacourt (who used to be Jan Delacourt Cooper) and Alison Partridge. Jan lives in Italy and Alison lives north of Sydney. Sadly, Alison became a paraplegic in her early twenties. Here are some photos of us at various times of our lives. I am the blonde and then I am the red-head….
Jan, Mem, Mac, Lailu and Nan Partridge1966
From the back: me, Jan and Lailu 1992
And here’s a piece from the Adelaide Advertiser about my resilient little sister
My mother encouraged me early in my high school years to take up public speaking, for which I’m very thankful. I’ve had to make hundreds of speeches in my life, and so many in Australia that I think by now I must have spoken to everyone, all 22 million, face to face. I won a public speaking competition in Bulawayo when I was 16. I was more naturally blonde then.
Here I am almost 50 years later speaking at a protest rally in my hometown.
And yet another speech, for teachers in Toronto
I think I was acting and putting on a show from the time I could walk. I did a lot of acting in my school years. This is me, second row, big hat, long black hair, being Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme in Moliere’s play of the same name, in my last year at high school, 1964. It was in English, not French, I hasten to add. I often played men as I have always had a deep voice and it was an all-girls school, so someone had to be the man. It was an all white school, also, as you see. I lived in a racist country.
In the mid-sixties, totally unsophisticated, I went to drama school in London and spent three happy years changing my Rhodesian accent, speaking Shakespeare, singing Beatles’ songs, wearing miniskirts, and dyeing my hair—a habit I haven’t grown out of. I was brilliant red for years, but blonde now looks better in my aging state. Being a red-head had become my brand, my recognizable logo, so people who see my now are shocked and saddened.
At drama school I met Malcolm Fox, the love of my life. In 1969 I married him. He was a highly gifted teacher of French and drama, who is now a gorgeous retired drama lecturer. Malcolm and I have been married for 44 years (as of 02:01:2013)
In my final year at drama school, 1968, Malcolm was a volunteer in Tunisia. He then became a volunteer in Rwanda and I joined him there, to teach English, in 1969, a few weeks after we were married. We returned to England that year and made plans to migrate to Australia. My beloved grandfather, Wilfrid Partridge, was 90 and lived in Adelaide, South Australia, so that’s where we decided to settle. We arrived in January 1970, planning to stay two years. We are still here.
Wilfrid Partridge, my grandfather, aged 92
Our daughter, Chloë, to whom Possum Magic is dedicated, was born in 1971.
Malcolm and me. December 1973
Chloe was a journalist for seven years, first in Adelaide and then in Paris; then she became a high school teacher of French and English at Loreto, a Catholic girls’ school in Adelaide; and now she’s a fulltime politician: a Labor Party Member of Parliament for the state seat of Bright in South Australia, which she won in the March 2006 elections. I have to pass this sign whenever I go to our shopping centre. Is it really my Chloë? Yes, it is!
Until the next Sate election, in March 2014, when who knows what will happen, Chloë is the Minister for Transport Services and the Minister Assisting the Minister for the Arts. And of course she is also, and more importantly, the mother of our adored grandson, Theo.
Because of the craziness of the Internet this will be only photo of Theo on this website, when he was making the acquaintance of a wallaby for the first time, aged two, in 2012.
Back to me—after all, this is all about me!—as a mature age university student in my early thirties, I studied children’s literature at Flinders University. This set me, totally unawares, on the road to some fame and even fortune since it was during that course that I wrote the first draft of my first book: Possum Magic, as an assignment. It was rejected nine times over five years but went on to become (and continues to be, to this day) the best-selling children’s book in Australia, with nearly 5 million copies sold. In 2004 its 21st birthday was celebrated with parties and events in thousands of schools and other places around Australia, and a new re-designed edition was launched. The colours of the original film of the illustrations were fading because it had been reprinted so many times. They now look gorgeous again.
This is a photo of me (left) and Julie Vivas, the illustrator, at the launch of Possum Magic at the Sydney Opera House in May 1983. All I can say is thank God for the art of dentistry. And the wombat and koala are real!
Since Possum Magic I have written many more books for children: over 40, I believe, at the last count. I have also written five non-fiction books for adults. The title of my autobiography, in the USA edition, is ‘Dear Mem Fox, I have read all your books even the pathetic ones’ which was a quote from a child’s letter. Around half my picture books have become bestsellers, which just goes to show that occasionally I write good books as well as pathetic ones. A few of my books have different titles and different illustrators in the USA but essentially they are the same inside.
One of the best moves I ever made was to re-train, in 1981, out of drama into literacy studies, to find out how children best learn to read and write. Literacy has become the great focus of my life—it’s my passion, my battle, my mission and my exhaustion. If you’re the parent of a child aged from 0-7 I hope you will enjoy my bestselling book for parents: Reading Magic: how your child can learn to read before school and other read aloud miracles. If you are a teacher I hope you will be challenged but also thrilled by my book Radical Reflections, about the teaching of reading and writing, now available only in its USA edition.
Writing is my second love. My first is teaching, to which I admit an addiction so powerful that I’m surprised I had the courage to retire early (in 1996, aged 50) from my position as Associate Professor, Literacy Studies, in the School of Education at Flinders University, South Australia. I taught there with great satisfaction and happiness, full time, for 24 years. I cried three times in my last class, so sad was I to leave.
I now spend most of my time writing presentations urging parents, teachers, and others to read aloud to children aged between 0-5, and I travel the world doing it. I have travelled a great deal as an international literacy consultant to places as diverse as Bahrain, East Timor, Guam, Hong Kong, Oman, Tanzania, China, and of course to the USA, which I have visited over 110 times. I have spoken at hundreds and hundreds of conventions in the States. I also travel—i.e. work like an exhausted mongrel!—extensively around Australia, which I particularly adore since this is my beloved homeland. And I continue to write picture books when the spirit moves me, so if you’re still reading this, and if you like my books, and keep buying them, I promise to continue to write picture books for children even though it’s the hardest job in the world and much more of a grind that most people realize. I have many new books in the pipeline, currently being illustrated. They will appear over the next five years.
I’ve received a number of awards over the years, and am extremely grateful for each of them:
The Dromkeen Medal for distinguished services to children’s literature 1990
An Advance Australia Award for an outstanding contribution to Australian literature 1991
A medal (AM) in the Australia Day Honours awards, for services to the cultural life of Australia, 1993
The Flinders University Chancellor’s Medal, 1994
The Alice Award, presented biennially by the Fellowship of Australian Women Writers, 1994
An honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia, 1996
The Flinders University Convocation Medal, 2001
A South Australian ‘SA Great’ award, for Literature, 2001
A Woman of Achievement award from Zonta International, 2002
The Australian Prime Minister’s Centenary Medal, 2003
Australian of the Year for South Australia, 2003, and finalist for the Australian of the Year 2004
An honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Flinders, South Australia, 2004
Appointed by Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark as one of five Australian ambassadors of Hans Christian Andersen in celebration of the author’s 200th anniversary, 2005
Children’s Language and Literature Achievement Award from the Speech Pathology Association of Australia, 2007
An honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Technology, Sydney, 2011
The Australian government’s official gift to the new royal baby, Prince George, is Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes 2013
As you see, I have not mentioned any of the sadness in my life. Of course there have been many hideous fears, sorrows, horrors and griefs: for example, all three of us sisters are cancer survivors. Dreadful things happen to almost all of us during our lifetimes and for much of our lives we think dreadful things are happening only to us. But as we grow older we look around in amazement to find everyone else sitting with us, in the same boat. Nevertheless, to focus on my ‘dreadful things’ would be to go back in time and re-live them, and what crazy person would want to do that? The future is what matters, lived with a resilient heart and a smiling face.
I continue to travel, work and write, but my main role right now is being a devoted grandmother. I hope that you and I will meet, one way or another, as our lives progress. All the best! Mem xxx
Fact and fiction with Mem Fox
9 Replies
On telly’s Today show last week, celebrated children’s fiction author Mem Fox talked about the importance of reading to children, something with which absolutely everyone agrees.
Mem Fox’s missionary parents took her to Southern Rhodesia as an infant. They were, she explains, “very keen on Australian books being read to us, and our reading Australian books”. TV hadn’t been invented, so she developed a love of reading. She thanks three years at drama school in London for her understanding of language and thus ability to write books. I suspect this training may also have contributed to her storytime drama skills.
All good. Then, about three minutes into the interview, I thought I heard Ms Fox say that young children are increasingly unable to communicate effectively using spoken language.
I did a double-take. I’m a paediatric speech pathologist. You’d think I’d know about this, if it were true. I don’t recall any mention of a general decline in young children’s ability to communicate at this year’s Speech Pathology Australia conference, or in any of the journals I’ve read lately.
I rewound the video, and Ms Fox’s exact words were:
“You know if children don’t have language, if they can’t talk by the time they get to school, and I know that will sound extraordinary, people will say ‘what, they can’t talk when they get to school?!’, if children can’t talk by the age of four, or can’t make themselves clearly understood by the age of four, and that is, increasingly, you know, happening, they can’t learn to read. If you can’t, you know if you don’t have language, obviously you can’t learn to read language. So reading aloud is very, very important for education.”
If anyone reading this knows of robust, scientific research showing a general decline in preschoolers’ oral language skills, I’d be very interested to hear of it. Until then, we can only assume that this is not actually factual.
Read three books a day to children to eliminate illiteracy?!
At 7.24 on the video clock, the interviewer says, “So, you believe that if every parent, or carer of course, read aloud a minimum of three stories a day to children in their care, we could eliminate illiteracy within one generation”.
Ms Fox replies, “I do believe that”, apparently blissfully unaware of how insulting this is to teachers. By this logic, their literacy-teaching work is irrelevant, because literacy is caught not taught. The many parents who faithfully read aloud to their children every day from infancy, but whose children did not learn to read at the expected time, might also find this insulting.
The science about this is entirely settled: Ms Fox is simply wrong. US public radio journalist Emily Hanford has recently produced some brilliant work explaining why, and what needs to be done about it. Please share her work with every teacher you know, it’s also relevant to Australia:
Hard Words: Why aren’t kids being taught to read? (article and 52 minute audio documentary)
What to do if your child’s school isn’t teaching reading right (article)
Why are we still teaching reading the wrong way? (New York Times article)
Why learning to read is still so hard (48 minute podcast)
“The Literacy Wars”, whatever they are
In her Today Show interview, Mem Fox goes on discuss what she calls “the Literacy Wars”. She says, “Some people want to teach reading in this way, which I find incredibly boring and putting off. Some people want to teach reading in this way, which can sometimes be too fuzzy and too warm, and you know, without, you know, strict enough teaching. There is a middle way. Nothing that we talk about after kids start school can be agreed upon, you know, people fight like mad about how to teach reading.”
Ms Fox doesn’t come out and say it’s phonics that she finds incredibly boring, but her meaning is unmistakable to anyone familiar with what the rest of the world calls “the Reading Wars”, and she explicitly bags out systematic, explicit phonics (and elevates the Cmabrigde Reading Hoax to the status of fact, see PS below for why it’s not) here, here and in her book Reading Magic.
Ms Fox says nobody disagrees about the importance of reading to kids, which is true. She fails to say that reading researchers actually can and do agree that the early teaching approach she calls boring – systematic, explicit phonics – produces the most skilled readers. Unfortunately, most universities still fail to teach teachers about this approach.
Six rhymes by age four = top reader by age eight?!
At 9:58 on the video clock, discussing (or, dare I say, marketing) her latest rhyming works of fiction, Ms Fox says, “the reason why rhymes are important is that if children know six nursery rhymes by the time they’re four, by heart, they’re usually in the top reading group by the time they’re eight. Because that’s how important learning to rhyme and predict is to learning to read. And people think ‘oh, it’s just nursery rhymes, who cares?’, but actually, you really do.”
Again, I scratched my head. I’ve read a lot of books and journal articles about how children learn to read, but have not previously been aware of a 6-rhymes-by-4, top-reader-by-8 statistic. Google Scholar isn’t shedding any light on it for me, either.
Yes, rhyming is part of phonological awareness, or awareness that words have structure as well as meaning. Good phonological awareness is important in learning to read, but once you start school it’s awareness of individual sounds in words – phonemic awareness – that matters most. Again, if anyone knows of research supporting Ms Fox’s six-nursery-rhymes statistic, I’m all ears, but until then I’ll just assume it’s made-up.
Not everyone lives in Ms Fox’s world
Not everyone lives in a nice middle-class world where every parent knows English nursery rhymes, can read and has access to lots of books. I worked for years with kids from public housing, mainly indigenous, refugee and migrant kids. Many parents have signed my permission forms with a cross, and I’m aware of Australia’s adult literacy statistics. So I know that many parents can’t actually read to their kids, because they can’t read. Ms Fox seems not to know this.
Ms Fox’s idea of a terrific “top reading group” necessarily implies a miserable “bottom reading group”, yet she doesn’t acknowledge that many, many kids from all walks of life simply cannot crack our spelling code without lots of explicit and direct phonics teaching, including access to carefully-sequenced decodable books (recently derided by education academics in The Conversation, but their arguments were quickly torn apart by Pam Snow and Greg Ashman).
In a fair system which respected children and teachers, this kind of teaching would start on the first day of school, because it is (in the words of researchers Catherine Snow and Connie Juell) “helpful for all children, harmful for none, and crucial for some”. In the hands of skilled teachers, it’s also not remotely boring.
I love Mem Fox’s children’s fiction like everyone else. Some of her facts, not so much.
Mem Fox and Judy Horacek
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By Sophie Suelzle on November 27, 2015
Interviews
W
e had the pleasure of speaking to both Mem Fox and Judy Horacek on their recent Australian tour for their brand new book This and That. Fox and Horacek are well know for their author/illustrator partnership, which has spawned books such as Where is the Green Sheep? and Good Night, Sleep Tight. Here, they chat about their latest work, their inspirations and favourite (or not so favourite) childhood memories.
1. It is so wonderful to see another collaboration from you both, can you tell us a little bit more about your book?
Judy: It is a work of genius.
Mem: We have the same agent – in a nutshell – we have been wanting to work together again and my agent showed Judy the manuscript. And it was actually a much different story in the beginning! Judy took my manuscript and flipped the rhymes, reversed the narrative. Initially, the narrative started with a fat hen, not finished with it. Judy turned it into a bedtime story.
2. What was the inspiration behind This and That? I noticed Mem that you dedicated the book to Judy, who I’ve seen from her blog is adept at doing this and that simultaneously?
Mem: Well, to be honest, the Judy I dedicated the book to was not Judy Horacek, but Judy my cleaner, who also does a lot of this and that!
Judy: I know, easy mistake to make – I was quite flattered until I realised.
Mem: The inspiration for the story of This and That came to me when I was staying in Paris with a very jetlagged grandchild who couldn’t fall asleep. I said ‘jump into bed’ and was wracking my brains trying to think of a bedtime story, and I started saying ‘I’ll tell you a story of this, and I’ll tell you a story of that’ and it just kept going. I remember the next morning writing it down in my notebook at the airport waiting for my flight home.
3. Why mice Judy?
Judy: I wanted the two main characters to be creatures I could fit into all the situations that take place throughout the story. Also, they are actually rats – as ‘rat’ rhymes with ‘that’, which was another reason why I chose to make them rats.
However, I think we eventually decided to take the ‘rat’ and ‘that’ rhyme out of the book, so I suppose they could be either rats or mice depending on the reader. I quite like pet rats, very intelligent creatures.
4. In This and That the two main characters go from place to place, adventure to adventure – sort of similar to the tour you’re doing now. What was your favourite adventure as a child?
Judy: I had pretty regular adventures growing up – I loved going to the beach, swimming in the ocean and pretending to be on a desert island. My favourite adventures were summer holidays with my family.
Mem: Game parks. I’m now terrified of game parks after going to them as a child. They’re meant to be pleasant, but they can be TERRIFYING for children.
I grew up in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) with my parents who were missionaries at the time. I remember one day we were driving through one of the parks, turned a corner and came face to face with a gigantic rhinoceros. I just remember being petrified and I believe my father was as well, as he reversed straight into a sandbank. Technically that wasn’t my favourite adventure, but definitely one of the most memorable!
But I had quite an adventurous childhood. I have lots of fantastic memories growing up in Rhodesia.
Judy: Mem, how can I compete with that?!
5. Mem, in previous interviews you have mentioned how important your ‘writing cave’ is to your creative process. Do you have any tips for budding children’s authors?
Mem: Oh yes. To begin with, try to go to as many bookshops as possible and see what is currently out there. Then go to the library and borrow as many as you can. Get a sense of what the market is, and what is popular at the moment. Take inspiration from other authors. And always carry a notebook with you to write down any ideas you might have throughout the day.
6. What were some your favourite books as children?
Judy: I loved the illustrations in Brian Wildsmith’s books –his illustration style was so bright and vibrant.
Mem: Growing up in Africa as an Australian I read a lot of classic Australian books – Binky Bill was a firm favourite. They might be a little politically incorrect these days, but I also loved the stories of Rudyard Kipling.
7. And what is your favourite children’s book at the moment?
Judy: Where is the Green Sheep, obviously!
Mem: It’s too difficult to choose, which is wonderful – there are so many fantastic Australian children’s books out at the moment, it’s a brilliant time for Australian children’s literature.
8. Mem, you have said that one of your main priorities is encouraging parents to read to their children, especially from the ages of 0-5 years. Why is it so important to read to children?
Mem: Why is it important? I feel like personally it is one of the most crucial thing parents can do for their child’s development.
Parents need to have lots of fun reading to their little ones to foster a love of books. It is important to keep the attention of young minds with lively voices and energetic renditions. And it’s something everyone can do, no matter what their economic background.
Reading aloud to children helps them develop mentally, imagining characters and putting them in context. It creates a bond between parents and their children, creates an excellent routine and prepares children for the future. And even if it’s only for 15-20 minutes a day – that’s all it takes. It’s amazing to me that some people don’t take the time, but it’s such a joyful gift that you can give to your child, and to yourself.
9. What is next for you both?
Judy: We have another book in the works that will be released around this time next year.
Mem: It’s very adorable. That’s all we can really say, but it will definitely involve hilarious ducks.
Meet Mem Fox
My name is Mem Fox and I'm an Australian author, but I have published many of my books in America and in fact, I meet American authors so often at various events and conferences that they think I live here. And in… Once an American said to me about my book Koala Loo and Miss Fox, "Did you research koalas to do this book?"
And I said, "No, I'm an Australian." I know everything there is to know about koalas." So I've been a writer for 25 years. My first book was Possum Magic which has become the iconic children's book in Australia. It is the best-selling children's book ever in that country and can you believe it!
And can you believe that this is its 25th year and it sold more this year than it sold last year, and it sold more last year than it sold the year before, and it sold more that year than the year before that. So it's just — it's colossal. It's so huge, Possum Magic, and it's such a beautiful book.
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A writer at ten
I think there were some early signs. When I was ten, I remember one Saturday night my father had killed a chicken for dinner the next day — this was the kind of life we led — and my mother was plucking it at the kitchen sink in a bucket of boiling water. I can remember the smell was dreadful, absolutely dreadful.
And the rain had pounded down outside for hours and soil, red soil, was being washed away down the hillside. And we'd been learning about erosion at school, about soil erosion. And I was passionate somehow. All of a sudden, I was passionate about soil erosion at the age of ten and I went into my room and wrote a book about soil erosion and the horrors of it and how sad and bad it was.
Stapled it, you know, put a little bit of sticky tape over the staples, put a front cover on it, went into the kitchen where my mother was plucking the hen and read it to her and she said, "That's lovely, darling." So I had delusions of grandeur really from the age of ten.
I've always enjoyed writing. I've really loved it. I lived in Africa and my cousins lived in Australia and I wrote a lot of letters backwards and forwards. I've always loved writing letters. Even in the age of e-mail, I write letters still because the joy of receiving a letter that's four or five pages long is so wonderful that I can't stop myself from doing that. I love writing them as well as receiving them.
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A childhood in Africa
I was born in Australia and when I was six months old, my parents, who were missionaries, went to what was then southern Rhodesia. It is now called Zimbabwe. And I grew up as a while child at first totally among black children. I spoke English with a very broad African accent.
I went barefoot, rode wild donkeys, went off for — you know, all day long with my parents having no idea where I was, but knowing that I was safe, and it was idyllic. I was I grew up in a very book-loving household. My parents had all of Dickens, Shakespeare, all the great poets, Madame Bovary, really you know, Crime and Punishment.
The major books of the world were…I lived in a library really and people think, oh, she grew up on a mission in Africa. Oh, that must have been so hard. That must have been, you know, so deprived. In fact, it was a fabulous, fabulous childhood both educationally, my family, interracially.
I knew that I knew that color had no that color was literally skin deep. I knew that it didn't make a person a better friend because they were black. It didn't make them a worse friend because they were black. I knew that some people were horrible and some people were funny and some people were kind. But it didn't matter what color they were.
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Common ground
I've always loved writing and I've always been passionately aware of race, and I think I've a subliminal desire to make the world realize how similar it is to itself instead of how different it is. You know, the… everything in my life sort of points to that.
I'm very concerned about that, and it's not just between black and white. It's between Christian and Muslim and between Suni and Shea, you know within Islam. I mean, it's all of us who scrape against each other and wind each other up and kill each other instead of saying, "Oh, you have a son? So do I. And do you love that son? I adore my son."
"Gosh. We both have a grandmother. Is yours causing you problems? Mine has lost her memory. Yours, too? Oh, my goodness, I'm so sorry." You know it's not — that's not the kind of conversation we have. We just keep looking at the differences and it's awful. It's awful.
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Three little kisses…
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes arose because I was speaking at an event in Boston and I had two days prior to this event phoned my American editor and my Australian literacy agent and said, "I'm not writing anymore." In fact, I cried. I mean, I didn't say I was sobbing.
So that was, I think, on a — on a Wednesday and on the Friday I was in Boston talking to parents who had babies with them and little children. And at the end of the event when they were asking me to sign books, they were leaning over the table with the babies.
And sometimes, you know, little babies' fingers are so tiny you can't believe how tiny they are and you'd look at these minute digits and then their little fists like this and you have to put your finger in those little fists. You can't resist but put your little — finger in their little fist.
And some of the babies were black and some of them were brown and some of them you could tell were adopted because they were different colors from their parents, and some people were poor and some people were well off…and some people were young parents and some people were much older parents.
And yet all the babies, you know, had ten little fingers and ten little toes. It didn't matter who they belonged to or what color they were. Now I didn't notice that. I did not notice that objectively. But then I went home to Australia via a very long route. It took me forty hours to get home.
And I thought of these babies…and by then they were far away from me. And there was one little baby who was born far away. And then I just said to myself and another who was born on the very next day, "And both of these babies, as everyone knows, had ten little fingers and ten little toes."
So I thought, ew, that's the first verse of a story perhaps. This is a first verse. But I was still so drowsy that I couldn't wake up. I could not wake up. But I was drowsy enough to dream the story, so I thought of the next verse and the next verse and the next verse.
And when I finally sort of slapped myself awake or when the flight attendant, you know, woke us all up and gave us food, I quickly got out a notebook and I wrote very, very fast — the whole story.
I was terrified I would forget it. I wrote so fast that the woman — a total stranger — who was sitting next to me, said when I finished, she said, "I-I-I know it's none of my business. I'm so sorry. I shouldn't interfere, but you were writing so fast and it seemed so urgent and now it's over. What were you doing?"
And I said, "Well," I said, "Actually, I think I've just written a divine children's book." And I laughed because my mother would have hated me saying that, you know, because she would never liked us to boast or, you know, build ourselves up. But I felt my mother — dead already — on my shoulder saying, "That was a disgraceful thing to say."
So I laughed shamefacedly when I said, "I think I've written a divine children's story." And then I said to her, "Would you like a copy of it?" And she said, "Oh, yes. I'd love one. Then I'll know what you've written." So I wrote it again by hand. And I gave — and I signed it, you know, "With love from Mem Fox."
And she had didn't know who I was. And I gave it to her. I have no idea who she was, but she read it and she cried. And I thought, "Whoo hoo. We have got something here. We have got something here." And strangely, you know, often when I read the book, adults will come up to me afterwards and say surprised, "You know, I don't know what it was about that book, but I teared up at the end of it."
They're really puzzled and I think it's because the book is so tender, but not sentimental. It's not at all sentimental, but it's very, very tender. And it means a lot to me because our daughter lived for a long time in France and we only have one child. This was when she was an adult.
And her sign off to me on the phone or on an e-mail used to be "I kiss you on the nose." And she calls me Moppy because my hair looks like a mop. "I kiss you on the nose, Moppy," and in e-mail, "I kiss you on the nose, Moppy." So the last line, "But the next child born was truly divine. A sweet little child who is mine, all mine."
"And this little baby, as everyone knows, has ten little fingers and ten little toes and three little kisses on the tip of its nose."
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Working with Helen Oxenbury
Honestly, I admired her so much that I thought if I ever met her, I would be so star-struck I wouldn't be able to speak, quite literally. Because I had met Morris Sendak once. I think you call Maurice, Maurice Sendak.
And I just gabbled. I mean, you know, she's a sort of Maurice Sendak kind of person in my life. So yes, I did know of her, but it was never in my wildest dreams that she would illustrate a book of mine…never in my wildest dreams. And, of course, I had said I was never going to write again. My editor had sent some work to Helen before, not just manuscripts of mine, but manuscripts of other authors whom she edits, and Helen had turned them all down.
And then she sent this particular text and Helen said yes. And I was on vacation at the time in a very sedate hotel on an island far off the coast of Australia and I-I-I mean, I did windmills around the foyer and I just went mad…and my arms were out and I was going "Whooooo," like this. It was really embarrassing. I was beside myself, absolutely beside myself. And then and then the artwork, you know, began to come in and we were just swooning over the artwork.
I just — I can't believe this book. I cannot believe that she and I have done this book together. It means so much to me, the book itself, but the fact that she has lifted, you know, my text which I'm pleased with. Let me be honestly arrogant here. I'm very pleased with the text.
But that she has just lifted it into this, you know, stratosphere that is up there and has made something magical that I feel people are going to be saying to their babies in the car, even when the book isn't there, and that grandparents are going to be saying to their grandchildren in sixty and seventy years time. They're going to remember the book and reading it. It's that kind of book because I've been so lucky enough to have Helen illustrate it.
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A passion for reading aloud
I was a teacher of teachers in a university full time for 24 years teaching teachers how to teach reading and writing and also teaching teachers themselves how to write, which was wonderful and great fun.
So the passion of my life now as a retired university professor is…stalking parents all over the world I guess you could put it like that and begging them almost on bended knee to read to their children everyday for 10 minutes or so everyday between birth and five.
Because the children who've been read to who have learned to love books, who know how to turn pages, who've seen print, who've talked about pictures, who've had conversations with adults, endless conversations about what they're reading…those children bond with their parents. Their parents bond with them. They all bond with books. The children grow up happy because they know that they're loved because their parents actually take time to be with them every single day. Their brains develop in a most fantastic way.
So pediatricians are begging children to be read to, begging parents to read to children. Speech pathologists are begging parents to read to children. It's not just me. I'm not on some kind of mad high horse with some, you know, great hobby going. It is a hugely, hugely important thing to be doing.
But I know from having been an educator of teachers for 24 years that nothing is as important in learning how to read than being read to everyday from birth to five. So that's my passion and that is really who I am.
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Literary rhythm
I told you earlier that I loved writing, that I had written all the way through high school. And I had been praised for my writing by my English teacher who was a very great influence in my life. But my other love was acting and I was in every play that was going at high school and because I went to a girls' school and I've got a deep voice, I was often the main male character in the plays that I was in. And I was desperate to go to drama school, absolutely desperate.
And my father said, honestly, you know, "This is it's just not a career because, you know, most actresses and actors are out of work, you know. It's just not a career.
Anyway, my Dad was talking to somebody else, some other educator in another university in cause my father was in a teacher's college on the mission, and he was talking to somebody else who said, "Oh, my daughter was the same and she wanted to, you know, be an actress. And we found this drama school in London which has with it a teaching diploma."
"They have to do teaching. It's compulsory. So that when they come out, even if they don't want to teach, they have the teaching qualification." So my Dad said, "Okay, if you can get in there, you can do it." So off I went. Mid-sixties…in London…Beatles…Mary Quandt…miniskirts…the whole deal, and I'm at drama school at this time in English history.
Oh my God, it was so wonderful. It was incredibly exciting. But the drama school was very strict…very, very strict. The slightest misbehavior and you were expelled. You couldn't be late for a class, and there were classes from ten until five with no breaks every single day. And the semesters, or terms as we called them, were 13 weeks. So by the end of that time, we were exhausted. But it was the very best training for me to become a writer for children because I learned by heart the greatest language in English.
I learnt the great poets. I learnt by heart Shakespeare. I learnt many other playwrights' words, both modern and ancient, you know, Greek and so on. And I find now when I'm writing that my drama training is the best possible training that I could have had to be a writer of picture books.
Because although I cannot…externalize what I'm doing, I can't explain why this syllable this word has to be two syllables there or if we put it in this part of the sentence, it has to be three syllables, but the stress must come on the middle part the middle syllable. I can't explain any of that, but I know by reading aloud my work, when it's working and when it's not.
And I think that there are a lot of people who think they can write for children who don't have that sense of literary rhythm. And without it, you're not going to capture children's hearts. You can have the most fantastic characters. You can have the most wonderful plot. You can have trouble that would, you know, wring tears from a stone, but if you haven't got rhythm, you haven't got the kids.
They're not with you. And I've got rhythm basically…because I went to drama school.
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The first book
I was at drama school at the age of 19 to 22. When we went to Australia, I was employed by a teacher's college to teach drama to teachers and also to teach them how to teach drama.
And even though I was doing the job that I was employed to do, the college said, "You know, we really do need you to have a B.A."
And when I was doing the B.A., I decided to do children's literature because our own daughter was an avid reading and I thought, well there must be books that I don't know which I should find out about so that I can expand her literary horizons. And indeed there were.
And one of the…But one of the things that we had to do in children's literature was to write a children's book. Now I was thirty-one at this point and I truly thought that writing a children's book…because I was an overachieving, mature student, you know, who really tried hard and wanted high distinctions all the time and, you know, was just out there doing her best.
And I thought, write a children's book? You have to be joking. What kind of Mickey Mouse course is this that you have to write a children's book? You know, the semester before, I had written a major essay on Milton's Paradise Lost. I had read all of Milton's Paradise Lost, all twelve books of it.
And then next semester, I was writing a children's book. I thought, oh, my Lord. What have I gotten myself into? Well…the reason why our professor had asked us to do this was so that we would immediately at the beginning of the course, find out how difficult it was to write for children and to look up to the children's writers that we were going to study instead of looking down on them.
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From a mouse to a possum
It was incredibly difficult for us to write the children's book. I chose to write Possum Magic. In fact, it wasn't called Possum Magic; it was called Hush, the Invisible Mouse. And it was a story about a mouse whose grandmother was magic and had made the mouse invisible because — and this wasn't in the text, but it was in my head that the parents of this mouse had been killed by a cat.
So the grandmother had made this little mouse invisible so that it was safe from cats. And then one day, the mouse says, "I'd like to know what I look like." "Can you make me visible again, please?" And by this time, the grandma's so old she can't remember how to do it. And they're living in England…and this was all because my husband was English and we were living in Australia and I wanted him to settle and feel happy as an Australian.
So this little mouse and its grandmother…they knew it was food that would make them visible again — make the child visible — and they ate snails in France and spaghetti in Italy and so on.
And they traveled the world. Nothing worked until they got to Australia when they ate three iconic Australian foods and a vegemite sandwich, a Pavlova and lemingtons, or I just three foods that I won't explain. My professor said it was fantastic. She loved it.
It was four and a half pages. The final draft which was published was a page and a quarter. It was far too long for a picture book. It was rejected nine times over five years. And the final publisher who took it, the 10th publisher who took it said, "You know, there's a story here somewhere. And we can see that there's a story and we can see what the story is, but it needs to be cut by two-thirds and could you make it only an Australian story and could you not have mice because they're in plague proportions in children's literature?"
So I said, "Fine." And we had possums on our roof and they're prettier possums than your possums in America. They're absolutely adorable. Much softer fur and very, very cute. So I wrote the story over the weekend, rewrote it. They said, "Make it lyrical," you know, "and come back on Monday."
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Reading magic
I loved my teaching at the university. I absolutely adored it. And when I was watching my own students teach young children, I saw kids who had never seen a book in their lives. And my students were trying to teach these children how to read in a class of thirty kids.
They were trying to teach children sounds. They were trying to say to children, "What's coming out of my mouth is actually on the page. This is what it says." And kids who had been read to picked it up. Children who had not been read to didn't pick it up So I thought, okay, I have to leave the university because I haven't got time to teach properly and I'm not going to teach improperly. So let me leave.
And then I got just so frustrated because I could see that people weren't reading aloud to their children. I was listening to pediatricians talk. I was listening to speech pathologists. I was I was listening to sociologists, psychologists about the importance of reading aloud.
And I thought I have to write the book. I've got to write a book for parents cause it has to happen. We could change the world if people did this. So…I sat down and wrote an academic book of 66,000 words because I had not long been an academic. You know, I had been an academic.
And my editor who had a three-year-old child at the time said, "Mem, I'm actually a very bright person, you know. I went to a good school in America" — as you call them schools; we never called them schools. But she said, "I went to a good school and I did well. And I do not understand half the jargon in this book. And I'm a parent of a three-year-old."
And she said, "I want you to lie in a couch on lie on one of your couches and I want your reader to lie on the other couch and I want you to gossip to them about how important it is to read aloud to children."
And thank God she said that because really it's just full of gossip. It's full of little stories about what happened to this person, what happened to that, built around a theme of what reading is.
It's about bonding, attachment, fun, laughter, having a great time, smelling the back of a little neck after a bath at night, mmmm, and then reading a book and talking about a book and the kids driving you crazy on a particular page which they will not turn over cause they've got to talk about this bit and this bit and this bit. And you think I'm so tired.
But it's just a wonderful, wonderful thing to do. But out of that wonder is so much benefit in so many ways. So I wrote Reading Magic and that became a best seller as well. I'm so excited about it. Now, you know, books like that sort of come and go, but this is still with us. It's still here.
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Reading aloud to older kids
Well partly the reason why it's important to read to them constantly, whatever age they are, is because when we're reading to them, especially when they're older kids… And it is wonderful if they'll let us read to them, cause some kids say, "I can read by myself. I don't want you to read to me anymore."
And you have to let them go, which is really heartbreaking. But if your child will let you read at eight and nine, when they are already able to read, we are reading to them things that they could never read by themselves, which they can completely understand because they're listening.
They're not reading it; they're listening to it. And in the context of that-of the story, they understand every word, whereas if they were reading it, they wouldn't. But if we're reading always something that's more difficult than they can read themselves, when they come to that book later or books like that, they will be able to read them.
Which is why even a fifth grade teacher, you know, even a tenth grade teacher, even a, you know, end of high school teacher should still be reading to children aloud because there's always something that is too intractable for kids to read on their own. We're always pushing them ahead that little bit harder, that little bit harder. That's why we should keep reading forever.
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Teaching vocabulary with books
The moment I start to talk about vocabulary, the moment I start to talk about character, the moment I start to talk about tone to any child below the age of about fourteen is the moment I kill the reason the book was written for…and the kids are turned off. They… The writer's purpose is ruined because the book is being taken apart for a different reason other than entertainment, information, comfort and the real reasons that that book was written for.
You know, it drives me insane when people make vocabulary lists out of my books because it's totally unnecessary. It is totally unnecessary if the book is read over and over and over again. If it's a book for older kids and they stumble over a word that they may not — like a word that I used a while ago — "intractable"…
That, you know, you come to that in the book and it says "intractable" and you explain what "intractable" means. Very quickly you just explain it cause you don't want to spoil the story. So you quickly explain "intractable" and then you move on, but to make vocabulary out…
Well, just vocabulary lists drive me mad anyway. They just drive me absolutely crazy because they are not in a sentence of beauty that a child will remember. They are not in a sentence of anguish that a child will remember. They're not in a sentence of such shocking information that a child will remember it.
It's a vocabulary list. It has no emotion and it will not be remembered for any good reason. It will just kill literature. If we read more books, if we focused more on good literature in our classrooms, if our classrooms were flooded with books or flooded with read alouds, if we weren't ashamed of reading aloud, if we realized that reading aloud is the greatest teacher of literacy, we would do more of it in the classroom. This is my credo that the people who wrote the literature are the best teachers of literacy.
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Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes
This book is called Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes and it was written by me, Mem Fox, and illustrated by the wonderful Helen Oxenbury. And this is how it goes.
There was one little baby who was born far away and another who was born on the very next day. And both of these babies, as everyone knows, had ten little fingers and ten little toes. There was one little baby who was born in a town and another who was wrapped in an eider down.
And both of these babies, as everyone knows, had ten little fingers and ten little toes. There was one little baby who was born in the hills and another who suffered from sneezes and chills. And both of these babies, as everyone knows, had ten little fingers and ten little toes
There was one little baby who was born on the ice and another in a tent who was just as nice. And both of these babies, as everyone knows, had ten little fingers and ten little toes. But then the next baby born was truly divine. A sweet little child who was mine, all mine.
And this little baby, as everyone knows, had ten little fingers and ten little toes and three little kisses on the tip of its nose.
I'm an Immigrant Too!
Amina Chaudhri
Booklist. 115.3 (Oct. 1, 2018): p82.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
I'm an Immigrant Too! By Mem Fox. Illus. by Ronojoy Ghosh. Oct. 2018.40p. Simon & Schuster/Beach Lane, $17.99 (9781534436022). K-Gr. 2.
The unabashed message of this book, as the title announces, is to remind young readers that Australia is a place of immigrant settlers. Beloved Australian children's author Fox (Nellie Belle, 2015) uses cute rhyming couplets to pack eons of history into jaunty verses, one for each kind of Australian family represented in the story. Readers learn that being Australian means knowing where one's ancestors came from; Ireland, Italy, Vietnam, Greece, Lebanon, Somalia, and China are some of the countries mentioned. The second couplet hints at the reasons for immigration--famine, war, love--and will perhaps plant the seeds in young readers' minds that people make homes in different places for a variety of reasons, all of which are valid. A particularly poignant verse about a refugee child waiting to be allowed into the country might elicit questions about the process of immigration and belonging. All the verses end on a happy note, and crisp, cheerful illustrations add to the book's celebratory and welcoming tone: "We open doors to strangers. / Yes, everyone's a friend." --Amina Chaudhri
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Chaudhri, Amina. "I'm an Immigrant Too!" Booklist, 1 Oct. 2018, p. 82. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A557838146/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=5eec768c. Accessed 16 Nov. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A557838146
Ducks Away
Carolyn Phelan
Booklist. 114.7 (Dec. 1, 2017): p64.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Ducks Away!
By Mem Fox. Illus. by Judy Horacek.
Jan. 2018. 32p. Scholastic, $16.99 (9781338185669). PreS.
This irresistible counting book opens with a mother duck walking across a bridge, closely followed by a little duck. "Actually, it was two little ducks./ No, it was three little ducks./ Wait! It was four little ducks./ What? It was five little ducks." But wait ... the wind sweeps the last duck into the river below. Splash! The duckling is soon floating, looking up at his family. Mother Duck dithers. Should she stay on the bridge or go below? One by one, the ducklings fall into the river, followed at last by their mother. Pleasing in simplicity, clarity, and a strong sense of design, Horacek's ink-and-watercolor illustrations enhance the story's humor while providing opportunities for children to practice counting up the ducklings as they make their entrances, counting down as they topple into the water, and maybe even making the connection that the set of ducklings atop the bridge decreases while the number in the river increases. Fox uses repetition, rhyme, and verbal patterns effectively, making this buoyant picture book a rewarding read-aloud choice. --Carolyn Phelan
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Phelan, Carolyn. "Ducks Away." Booklist, 1 Dec. 2017, p. 64. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A519036345/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=2b465316. Accessed 16 Nov. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A519036345
Ducks Away!
Publishers Weekly. 264.44 (Oct. 30, 2017): p78.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Ducks Away!
Mem Fox, illus. by Judy Horacek. Scholastic Press, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-338-18566-9
The team behind Where Is the Green Sheep? and other titles uses its creative alchemy to turn a simple counting story into a funny page-turner. A yellow mother duck is crossing a bridge with her five ducklings; the nicely distilled setting consists of an arc of gray stones with a mottled purple-blue stripe of water underneath. As soon as the family reaches the apex of the bridge, the ducklings start dropping down into the water one by one--some by choice, some by accident. They take to their new situation like, well, ducks to water, but Mother Duck is in a tizzy until her brood coaxes her off the bridge ("Go with the flow! Five, four, three ... two, one, GO!") and into the water with them. The slightly scattered text ("Actually it was two little ducks. No, it was three little ducks. Wait! It was four little ducks") will draw in readers from the first page, and they'll admire how the toy like ducklings, despite their intense dot eyes and oversize orange bills and feet, exude a cool-as-a-cucumber attitude. Ages 3-5. (Jan.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Ducks Away!" Publishers Weekly, 30 Oct. 2017, p. 78. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A514357822/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=92c913ac. Accessed 16 Nov. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A514357822
Fox, Mem: DUCKS AWAY!
Kirkus Reviews. (Oct. 15, 2017):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Fox, Mem DUCKS AWAY! Scholastic (Children's Fiction) $16.99 1, 30 ISBN: 978-1-338-18566-9
A duck family encounters a surprise detour as they attempt to cross a bridge.
One by one, Mother Duck and her five little ducklings come into view. As they waddle across the bridge, a gust of wind blows one duckling off and into the river below. Mother Duck exclaims, "What should I do? / Where should I go, / with four on the bridge / and one below?" The remaining ducklings follow in turn, and each time Mother Duck wonders how to respond, changing the numbers as appropriate. As each duck initially appears and when it moves from the bridge to the river, the number words are emphasized in orange print that stands out against white backgrounds and the otherwise black type. The combination of the visual and written elements depicting the ongoing addition and subtraction as the ducks change location makes for a powerful representation of these beginning numerical concepts. The repeated rhyming phrases encourage interactive reading and predicting what might happen next. Prolific children's author Fox has teamed up yet again with illustrator Horacek on this work, her collaborator on the effervescent Where Is the Green Sheep? (2004) and several other titles. The illustrations are deceptively simple, presenting the action of the story exactly as written with the use of bold lines, minimal colors, and ample negative space.
Straightforward illustrations, a spirited refrain, and engaging number play add up to a delightful read. (Picture book. 2-6)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Fox, Mem: DUCKS AWAY!" Kirkus Reviews, 15 Oct. 2017. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A509244034/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=835125a7. Accessed 16 Nov. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A509244034
Nellie Belle
Connie Fletcher
Booklist. 112.8 (Dec. 15, 2015): p59.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2015 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Nellie Belle. By Mem Fox. Illus. by Mike Austin. Dec. 2015.32p. Simon & Schuster/Beach Lane, $17.99 (9781416990055); e-book, $17.99 (9781439157244). PreS-Gr. 1.
In her latest, veteran author Fox (Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, 2008) tells the story of a long-eared puppy who wanders far from home before realizing there's no place like it. The tale is told in repeating rhymes and questions that give it a jaunty air and will help young readers with word recognition. The canine hero, Nellie Belle, is first seen in a flower-filled yard, peering through a hole in the fence that reveals a lighthouse off in the distance. Austin's (Fire Engine No. j?, 2015) digital illustrations are as bright and lively as Nellie Belle, and he uses several panels to show the dog digging her way out of the yard. Ever curious, she moves from street to beach to the sea, joyfully greeting passersby, seagulls, and a seal. When the pup comes back from swimming to investigate a dark and scary park, she hightails it to her doggie bed, making for a very cozy end to her far-flung adventure.--Connie Fletcher
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Fletcher, Connie. "Nellie Belle." Booklist, 15 Dec. 2015, p. 59. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A439362696/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=321833f0. Accessed 16 Nov. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A439362696
Fox, Mem: NELLIE BELLE
Kirkus Reviews. (Nov. 15, 2015):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2015 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Fox, Mem NELLIE BELLE Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster (Children's Picture Books) $17.99 12, 8 ISBN: 978-1-4169-9005-5
A canine explorer finds small adventures in the wide world outside her fenced yard. Fox's simple, patterned chant has echoes of "Billy Boy" and is terrific fun to read aloud: "Is it fun in the street, / Nellie Belle, Nellie Belle? / Is it fun in the street, / Nellie Belle? // Greeting everyone you meet, / in the street, in the street-- / is it fun in the street, Nellie Belle?" To this verse, Austin pairs bright cartoon scenes featuring a small hound who digs her way out of a lush garden, leaving a plush teddy bear behind. She is greeted by children and other passers-by, chases and is chased by sea gulls, plays with a seal, and follows a ball into the deep shade beneath a stand of trees. Crisp-edged, colorful digital art combines vignettes, full-page pictures, and double-page spreads (both framed and unframed), keeping energy high. But enough's enough, and the spooky eyes of "possums in the dark, / in the park, in the park" sends Nellie Belle scooting back home to snuggle down in her bed with "dear old Ted." Sunny, reassuring fare for recent graduates from toddlerdom itching to leave safe harbors (for a time, at least) to check out new horizons of their own. (Picture book. 3-5)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Fox, Mem: NELLIE BELLE." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Nov. 2015. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A434352376/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=e88b799c. Accessed 16 Nov. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A434352376
Nellie Belle
Publishers Weekly. 262.39 (Sept. 28, 2015): p88+.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2015 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Nellie Belle
Mem Fox, illus. by Mike Austin. S&S/Beach Lane, $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-4169-
9005-5
Fox (Baby Bedtime) supplies the sweetly cadenced rhymes and Austin (Fire Engine No. 9) the visual comedy as they follow an eager brown dog from home to the beach and back. After digging in the backyard and running into a baker, guitarist, and a few children on the street, Nellie Belle tussles with seagulls and a crab before playing in the water with a seal: "Is it fun in the sea, Nellie Belle, Nellie Belle?/ Is it fun in the sea, Nellie Belle?/ Swimming fast and swimming free,/ in the sea, in the sea--/ is it fun in the sea, Nellie Belle?" Austin, working digitally, uses overlapping shapes and marblelike textures to create a cheerful seaside town for Nellie Belles a run-in with some possums in a dark corner of a park sends the dog scooting back home to snuggle up with the teddy bear she left behind in the yard. It's an energetic, romping story from start to finish, yet counterbalanced by the soothing repetitions and rhythms of Fox's verse. Ages 4-8. Illustrator's agent: Rubin Pfeffer, Rubin Pfeffer Content. (Dec.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Nellie Belle." Publishers Weekly, 28 Sept. 2015, p. 88+. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A430498353/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=f2d0ab33. Accessed 16 Nov. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A430498353
FOX, Mem. I'm an Immigrant Too!
Amy Nolan
School Library Journal. 64.9 (Sept. 2018): p90.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
FOX, Mem. I'm an Immigrant Too! illus. by Ronojoy Ghosh. 40p. S. & S./Beach Lane. Oct. 2018. Tr $17.99. ISBN 9781534436022.
PreS-Gr 1-Tliis picture book begins with a young boy and girl posing the question; "I'm Australian! How about you?" What follows is a rhyming and colorful spread of various children explaining their origins and family roots. "My dad grew up in Darwin,/my mum in Humpty Doo./Our mob's been here forever--/now we share the place with you." Each child's tale is accompanied by a lovely graphic-style illustration by Ghosh, depicting the various landscapes of Australia or simply children playing in a pool or waiting by a bus stop. Fox touches on current immigrants, such as those from Syria and Afghanistan, and the violence they have escaped in an age-appropriate manner. The conclusion of the book is less chipper with a young girl holding a bird cage, standing next to a large, concrete wall with the text; "Sadly, I'm a refugee--/I'm not Australian yet./But if your country lets me in,/I'd love to be a vet." There is also a map at the beginning of the story showing where everyone "hailed from" and the end of the book displays another map showing where they now live in Australia. VERDICT While immigration is certainly a major news item today, the cities and regions in Australia may be too far removed for the majority of American children to relate to. An optional purchase--Amy Nolan, St. Joseph Public Library, MI
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Nolan, Amy. "FOX, Mem. I'm an Immigrant Too!" School Library Journal, Sept. 2018, p. 90. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A553280011/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=0d07bce0. Accessed 16 Nov. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A553280011
FOX, Mem. Ducks Away!
Marianne Saccardi
School Library Journal. 64.2 (Feb. 2018): p58.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
FOX, Mem. Ducks Away! illus. by Judy Horacek. 32p. Scholastic. Jan. 2018. Tr $16.99. ISBN 9781338185669. POP
PreS-K--A duck's walk across a bridge with her ducklings is interrupted by a gust of wind that brings about a chain reaction. The ducklings follow mom one by one until, just as the fifth one joins the group, a strong wind blows the little one into the river. '"Oh no!' quacked Mother Duck. What should I do? Where should I go, with four on the bridge and one below?"' As each duckling peers over the edge, it, too, falls into the water while Mother Duck repeats her lament, substituting different numbers as the amount of offspring on the bridge and below change. Finally, she dives into the water with her ducklings' encouragement. All the number words, used as each duckling joins the walk and when Mother Duck speaks, are printed in orange, making them highly visible on white ground. The cartoon illustrations depict the ducks with simple shapes outlined in black and are filled with humor. VERDICT With visual and written cues that facilitate counting and simple addition and subtraction practice, and repetitive rhyming text that invites participation, this offering is an outstanding choice for group sharing.--Marianne Saccardi, Childrens Literature Consultant, Cambridge, MA
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Saccardi, Marianne. "FOX, Mem. Ducks Away!" School Library Journal, Feb. 2018, p. 58. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A526733939/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=273e7b24. Accessed 16 Nov. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A526733939
Fox, Mem. This & That
Amelia Jenkins
School Library Journal. 63.2 (Feb. 2017): p68.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
FOX, Mem. This & That, illus. by Judy Horacek. 32p. Scholastic. Jan. 2017. Tr $17.99. ISBN 9781338037807.
PreS-Gr 1--Inspired by a nonsense rhyme to calm a restless grandchild, this book maintains tire silly, affectionate spontaneity of its origin. An orange mouse tells a smaller one: Til tell you a story of this, I'll tell you a story of that. I'll tell you a story of cavernous caves and a chimp with a magic hat. And then...." The cycle continues with the middle sentence changing to wacky and whimsical scenes of crazy giraffes, kings and queens, and terribly fat hens. Eventually the little mouse is tucked into bed with, "And I'll tell you a story of how I adore you, and then I'll give you a kiss." The bright, cartoonish illustrations perfectly match the playful tone of the text. Young readers will enjoy searching for the two orange mice in each scene. VERDICT Yet another successful read-aloud from this creative team. Purchase where their titles are popular.--Amelia Jenkins, Juneau Public Library, AK
Jenkins, Amelia
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Jenkins, Amelia. "Fox, Mem. This & That." School Library Journal, Feb. 2017, p. 68. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A479405491/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=4d6467f1. Accessed 16 Nov. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A479405491
Fox, Mem. Nellie Belle
Anna Haase
School Library Journal. 62.1 (Jan. 2016): p65.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
FOX, Mem. Nellie Belle. illus. by Mike Austin. 32p. ebook available. S. & S./Beach Lane. 2015. Tr $17.99. ISBN 9781416990055.
PreS--Nellie Belle is a bright-eyed hound dog who escapes her fenced yard and explores the scenery around town. After a scare in the park, she decides home is best and goes back to snuggle up with her teddy bear. The story starts in Nellie's backyard, as she gazes through a hole in the fence. "Is it fun in the yard, Nellie Belle, Nellie Belle? Is it fun in the yard, Nellie Belle?" The page turn shows Nellie digging under the fence and peering back through the same hole: "Digging earth that's very hard, in the yard, in the yard--is it fun in the yard, Nellie Belle?" For every place that Nellie discovers, the text follows the same pattern, asking if it's fun in the street, on the beach, in the sea, and in the park. Nellie looks like she's having fun everywhere--until she gets to the park. Suddenly the bright colors are gone and the pages are filled with dark purple and green foliage with eyes staring out from the dark. Here the pattern breaks as Nellie finally answers, "NO!" and turns tail to run home. The cheery digital illustrations add a lot of humor and use recurring details to guide readers from page to page. VERDICT Finding the right tune or rhythm for this book will be the key to read-aloud success, but those who are able to make it work will enjoy it for storytime or one-on-one reading.--Anna Haase Krueger, Ramsey County Library, MN
Haase, Anna
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Haase, Anna. "Fox, Mem. Nellie Belle." School Library Journal, Jan. 2016, p. 65. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A438949119/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=00511ead. Accessed 16 Nov. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A438949119
Fox, Mem. Baby Bedtime
Marge Loch-Wouters
School Library Journal. 60.8 (Aug. 2014): p70+.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2014 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
Fox, Mem. Baby Bedtime, illus. by Emma Quay. 32p. S. & S./Beach Lane. Aug. 2014. Tr $17.99. ISBN 9781481420976; ebk. $10.99. ISBN 9781481420983. LC 2013045559.
PreS-In this soothing bedtime ode, an elephant in a bathrobe snuggles and carries her baby up to bed. Gentle bugs and kisses are accompanied by nose nibbles, toe gobbles, cradling, whispers, book reading, hair stroking, and yawns as bedtime draws near. In this beautifully designed book, a line of text is paired with an image rendered in muted pencils, acrylic paint, and Photoshop. Each illustration abounds in patterns and textures created from items such as doilies, handkerchiefs, lace, baskets, and belts. The elephants have an unfocused, sketchy look that pairs perfectly with twilight and dreams around the corner. This gentle lullaby in book form is perfect for sleepy toddlers and parents who will want to mimic the actions in the book.--Marge Loch-Wouters, La Crosse Public Library, WI
Loch-Wouters, Marge
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Loch-Wouters, Marge. "Fox, Mem. Baby Bedtime." School Library Journal, Aug. 2014, p. 70+. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A377408615/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=eef9f369. Accessed 16 Nov. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A377408615