Library 

Lucie Hill

Library Technician

I would like to share some information about the acclaimed children’s Author, Mem Fox. Her books have been delighting children for nearly 40 years and my all-time favourite book is Mem Fox’s 'Time For Bed'.

Over the next week I will be reading her books to the students as they come to the library with their grades. I know they will enjoy them just as much as I do.

Mem Fox was born in Melbourne in 1946. She grew up in Africa, went to drama school in England in the mid-sixties and came back to Australia in early 1970. Growing up outside the country of her birth gave her a unique perspective on Australia and a passionate love for it.

In 1983, she became Australia's best-selling writer. She has remained the pre-eminent writer for young children for an entire generation. Possum Magic, her first book, is still available in hardback after 39 years, and has become a beacon of children's literature for millions of Australian families.

Mem Fox has written over 40 books for children, many of which have become international best-sellers in Australia and the USA, including Time for Bed, Where Is the Green Sheep? and Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes. She has also written several nonfiction books for adults, including her renowned book for parents: Reading Magic. Her books for both adults and children have been translated into twenty-three languages.

After years of study in literacy she became a full-time Associate Professor of Literacy Studies at Flinders University, South Australia, where she delighted in teaching teachers for 24 years until her retirement in 1996. Her focus on learning to read is legendary: how it is best learnt by reading to children for the first five years of their lives; the effect of literacy, or the lack of it, on every individual; and its enormous benefits for the economy of the country.