Author reads the riot act

MEM Fox, Australia’s bestloved children’s author, has issued a stern warning to parents who trade story time for me-time, leaving their children to entertain themselves on screens while they attend to their own digital devices.

Fox, 71, who is an ambassador for the Mercury’s Great Australian Storybook Collection, which starts next Saturday, is the author of more than 40 children’s books which are sold all over the world.

“I am very saddened by the level of interaction children have with screens,” Fox said.

Her concern isn’t with the content but rather the isolating effect of technology.

“It’s a way of adults – without meaning to – but they push the children out of their lives so that they don’t have to bother, and eventually, that’s going to catch up with those parents and children,” she said.

“That lack of attention, that lack of language, that lack of showing of love, by just making the time to be with the child, that will show up later.”

Fox has been a long-time advocate of parents reading aloud to children, something she herself has done during myriad appearances since her first book, Possum Magic, was published 34 years ago.

With its enchanting illustrations by Julie Vivas, the book has sold more than four million copies, is frequently voted Australia’s favourite children’s book and continues to enthral small children. “What encourages me is the fact that story never fails,” Fox said. “Because within a good story, which is not usually [the case] even on a good screen, there’s an emotional attachment to what’s going on, a really deep, passionate engagement with the words.

“They touch hearts in a way that’s indescribable.”

She recounts her experience at a recent children’s literary event.

“I had children almost sitting on my feet,” she said.

“One boy, who was about eight, was almost too close to me to see the book.

“I was reading Possum Magic, and I was about three pages in, and inadvertently, this child breathed: ‘ Ooooh. I LOVE this book’.

“Thirty four years later and kids are still swooning over this book. It’s extraordinary.

“I felt like howling. I was so surprised, and so pleased.”