Don’t say Boo to a Goose: Mem Fox and Wonderful Writing with Children

I’m really not sure which I prefer: Mem Fox’s books for adults or her imaginative, engaging, playful books for children. The author of such well-known favorites  as Hattie and the Fox and Koala Lou, Mem Fox is just someone you will want to know well if you teach writing or reading to children.

She summarizes her advice about teaching writing in her book, Radical Reflections: “Children develop language through interaction, not action. They learn to talk by talking to someone who responds. They must therefore learn to write by writing to someone who responds.”

Fox’s books invite response. Students of all ages will respond to her sense of humor and vivid images. Her book, Boo to a Goose, is a fanciful rhyme study that invites young children or older children with special needs to practice the skill of phonemic awareness. As children and adults read the book together, they are drawn in to the rhyming pattern.

“I’d feed my pajamas to giant piranhas
But I wouldn’t say “Boo” to a goose.

Funny, playful, and creative, Fox’s book is everything we hope our students’ writing will be.

In addition, the paper-cut illustrations of David Miller add to the inspiration of the well-chosen words by Fox.

I would imagine that children would jump out of their seats in order to continue the word patterns created by Fox with their own contributions to the pattern. This book would be a great inspiration for student-created books utilizing both the wonderful word patterns of the author and the engaging illustrations as well.

One Comment

• red apples says:

  July 30, 2012 at 11:47 pm

  Interestingly scanning the OPs blog readers will resonate with the above
  because it is true so it is nice to read from
  a blogger that’s stating topics such as this for all to see to read.