In 4th grade we read a story about a funny hat. She is an influential international consultant in literacy, but she pretends to sit around writing full time. 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 has received many civic awards, honours and accolades in Australia, including two honorary doctorates. 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. Mem has written 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.

Time for Bed is on Oprah’s list of the twenty best children’s books of all time. And in the USA Time for Bed and Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge have each sold over a million copies. Her first book, Possum Magic, is the best selling children’s book ever in Australia, with sales of over three million. Mem Fox is Australia’s most highly regarded picture-book author.

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.

The Magic Hat by Mem Fox