From: Sharron L. McElmeel <mcelmeels_at_uwstout.edu>
Date: Thu, 15 Aug 2013 22:08:48 -0500

Allison, et. al. Years ago I heard Mem Fox speak about her books and she mentioned this very thing. As her own little protest she deliberately made her book characters female (in all except for */Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge/* - who was named after her real grandfather or some such thing) -- but the rest are female: Hattie and the Fox, Koala Lou, and so forth. In her well-known, Possum Magic the main characters are Hush and Grandma Poss and while Fox refers to Hush as "her" and "she" readers constantly refer to Hush as he and him.. Just a bit of information. Sharron

On 8/15/13 9:39 PM, Allison Angell wrote: I got curious about this, too, so I checked "A Sick Day for Amos McGee". ("Bear Has a Story to Tell" is checked out, so I couldn't check it). With the exception of the bus driver, who looks male in the pictures (but who is never specifically described as male), every other character in "Amos McGee" is described with "his" or "himself" to make the gender clear. Hope this helps, Allison Angell, Benicia (Calif.) Public Library allison_angell_at_yahoo.com

-- Sharron L. McElmeel Instructor University of Wisconsin - Stout RDGED 703 Children's Literature in the Reading Program RDGED 704 Young Adult Literature in the Reading Program Home _at_ Cedar Rapids IOWA e-mail: mcelmeels@uwstout.edu phone: (319) 393-2562 (in CST zone)
Received on Thu 15 Aug 2013 10:08:48 PM CDT