Hattie and the Fox

Author : Mem Fox

Illustrator : Patricia Mullins

Format : Paperback

Condition : New

Dimensions : 25cm x 19cm x 0.5cm

About Hattie and the Fox

“Hattie was a big black hen. One morning she looked up and said, ‘Goodness gracious me! I can see a nose in the bushes!’ . . .”

At a reading conference in Hong Kong in 1984, I attended a workshop in which rhyming, rhythmic books were read aloud interactively for over an hour. It was brilliant. The point was to show how easy it is for young children to learn to read with bouncy repetitive books. I was thinking in bouncy rhymes all day! I wrote the first draft of Hattie that night. Of all the books I’ve written this is the one which has been quoted to me most by teachers as having made the difference to a non-reader ie. they have learned to read, finally and with easy pleasure, using this book. It is based of course on the traditional hen-and-fox tales which go back to Chaucer, Aesop and the dawn of time, I imagine. It has strong a basis in the structure of the story of The Little Red Hen and also leans on Pat Hutchins’ famous book: Rosie’s Walk. I regard Hattie as one of my classics. I love reading it aloud with lots of verve and noise in a sing song, very rhythmic, chanting style.

Brief Introduction of Mem Fox

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 Chloë, 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 most recent 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.

Her new book, about to be released in June 2009, is Hello Baby!. She hopes everyone, especially babies, will adore it.

More Books By Mem Fox

Hello Baby! (2009)
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes (2008)
Where The Giant Sleeps (2009)
A Particular Cow (2006)
Hunwick’s Egg (2005)
Where is the Green Sheep? (2004)
The Magic Hat (2002)
Harriet, You’ll Drive Me Wild! (2000)
Sleepy Bears (1999)
Whoever You Are (1998)
Boo to a Goose (1996)
Wombat Divine (1995)
Tough Boris (1994)
Time for Bed (1993)
Memories (1992)
Sophie (1989)
Shoes from Grandpa (1989)
Feathers and Fools (1989)
Night Noises (1989)
With Love at Christmas (1988)
Koala Lou (1988)
Guess What? (1988)
Goodnight Sleep Tight (1988)
A Bedtime Story (1987)
The Straight Line Wonder (1987)
Sail Away: The Ballad of Skip and Nell (1986)
Just Like That (1986)
Hattie and the Fox (1986)
Arabella, the Smallest Girl in the World (1986)
Zoo Looking (1986)
A Cat called Kite (1985)
Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge (1984)
Possum Magic (1983)

Hattie and the Fox