REVIEW OF POSSUM MAGIC


A. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Fox, Mem. POSSUM MAGIC. San Diego, CA: Gulliver Books, an imprint of Harcourt Brace & Company. ISBN 978-0-15-200572-2. 

 

B. PLOT SUMMARY
Two possums live in the Australian bush, Grandma Poss and Hush. Grandma Poss makes bush magic. One day she makes Hush invisible to make him safe from snakes. This is fine for a while, but eventually Hush wants to be able to see herself. Grandma Poss determines that “people food” is needed to restore Hush’s visibility, so they begin a journey seeking “people food.” They end up eating a variety of traditional Australian “people food” in many of the larger Australian cities: Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane. Unfortunately none of the food samples returns Hush’s visibility. It wasn’t until they tried a Vegemite sandwich in the city of Darwin that Hush’s tail became visible. Later, after eating pavlova in Perth her legs and body appeared. Finally, they traveled across the sea from Australia to Tasmania where they consumed some lamington. This made Hush’s head visible. She was now visible from head to toe, and she stayed that way for the rest of her life.


C. CRITICAL ANALYSIS (INCLUDING CULTURAL MARKERS)

What a great introduction to the countries of Australia and the neighboring island of Tasmania! The author Mem Fox, a native of Australia, does a great job of teaching the reader about native animals, cities, and traditional foods of Australia and Tasmania. The story is engaging and entertaining, and it invites further study about the different cities and places the possums go to, in addition to the unusual (for Americans) foods that the consume along the way. The map of the locations visited in the story and the glossary of food terms helps the reader understand the story better. The author uses contemporary cities and other locations in Australia (and Tasmania) to guide the reader around the country. The reader gets a real sense of the diverse and traditional foods of the culture. The story will motivate readers to look further into the country and foods of Australia; and, from there, hopefully on to other countries and multicultural foods.

 


D. AWARDS AND REVIEW EXCERPTS
Ethel Turner Prize for Young People’s Literature winner (1984)

IBBY Australia Honour Diploma for Illustration (1986)

Kids Own Australian Literature Awards (KOALA) Young Readers winner (1987)

Canberra’s Own Outstanding List (COOL) Picture Book Award (1994)

Young Australians Best Book Awards (YABBA) Hall of Fame member (2004)

Children’s Book Council of Australia BILBY Award Shortlist (2009)

Horn Book Magazine: “Mem Fox and Julie Vivas provide a delightful story about the trials of an invisible possum as they take readers on a romp all over Australia. They fuse text and illustrations together so masterfully that it seems like a sleight of hand. Presto change-o: one enchanting book.”

School Library Journal: “Grandma Poss uses bush magic to make Hush invisible, but when Hush wants to see herself again, Grandma can't remember which particular Australian food is needed to reverse the spell. Traveling around the continent in search of an antidote, Grandma and Hush sample Anzac biscuits, mornay, vegemite, and pavlova until the right delicacy is found…”

Booklist: “The stars of the story are two opossums, Hush and her grandmother. To keep Hush safe, Grandma Poss turns Hush invisible, which is fine until the day Hush decides she'd like to see herself. Unfortunately, Grandma Poss doesn't quite remember how to reverse the spell; she is only sure that it has something to do with ``people food.'' Eating Anzac biscuits in Adelaide and pumpkin scones in Brisbane doesn't work, but a vegemite sandwich causes Hush's tail to appear while pavlova (meringue with fruits and whipped cream) and lamington (sponge cake) bring the rest of her body forth. A fully materialized Hush dances with Grandma, and every year on her birthday she makes a meal of the three foods that keep her visible...”



E. CONNECTIONS
This story about Australian possums discovering traditional foods in important cities of their country is a great way to teach about Australia and foods of different cultures.

Here are some other picture books about foods from countries around the world:

Maillard, Kevin N. FRY BREAD. ISBN 978-1626727465
Lin, Grace. THE UGLY VEGETABLES. ISBN 978-1570914911
Park, Linda S. BEE-BIM BOP!. ISBN 978-0547076713
Marie, Lynne. LET’S EAT!: MEALTIME AROUND THE WORLD. ISBN 9781506451947

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Book Review of We Are Water Protectors

Book Review of We Are Water Protectors BIBLIOGRAPHY Lindstrom, Carole. 2020. WE ARE WATER PROTECTORS. Ill. by Michaela Goade. New York, NY: Roaring Brook Press. ISBN 9781250780997   PLOT SUMMARY A young girl explains the importance of water through the eyes of an indigenous culture. She tells an ancient story of her people that forecasts the arrival in the future of a black snake that will do great harm to the water and the land. Originally, the story says that the black snake will not arrive for many years. Now though, the black snake has arrived in the form of an oil pipeline. She rallies her people to protect the land and its inhabitants against the “black snake.”     CRITICAL ANALYSIS This book is targeted for elementary age students, but its message is meaningful for all ages. Carole Lindstrom’s writing is thoughtful and moving. It explains how humans are connected to the world around them- the land, the plants, the animals, and especially the water. ...
Read more
  Book Review of Imagine!   BIBLIOGRAPHY Colón, Raúl. 2018. IMAGINE! Ill. by Raúl Colón. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. ISBN 9781481462730   PLOT SUMMARY A young boy goes to the Museum of Modern Art. He is captivated and mesmerized by the artwork in the museum. One of the first works of art that he sees has a shadow figure that joins the boy. As the boy and the shadow figure continue their journey through the museum, they are joined by characters from other pieces of art. They leave the museum together and tour the city. Eventually they return to the museum where the artwork characters return to their paintings. The boy leaves the museum and is motivated to create his own artwork.      CRITICAL ANALYSIS There is no dialogue in this book. It is entirely told from the point of view of the boy. Raúl Colón’s artwork carries the story as the boy visits the museum and is ultimately inspired to create his own art. The illustrations are...
Read more
Pedagogy Before Technology             When I first began my public school teaching career, I was introduced to Bloom’s Taxonomy. It was a way for teachers to understand how to raise their level of instruction, and consequently their students’ learning. The taxonomy was divided into six different domain levels: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. The goal of all teachers was to have their students working at the highest levels possible. While it was understood that certain aspects of education were naturally taught at the knowledge and comprehension levels, it was more desirable to have students working at the levels above those; and, hopefully, reaching the synthesis and evaluation levels as often as possible.             In the 1990’s the taxonomy was updated to change the nouns associated with the levels to action verbs to move the ...
Read more