Mem Fox was culling her book collection — “trying to be ruthless” — when she came across an old book of short stories for children.
Flicking through it, she found a traditional Russian folktale she used to read aloud to kids in her past life as a storyteller, before she became a published author.
“I remember children just loving it,” Fox tells ABC Arts.
“In the story, there was a big turnip, and they pulled, and they pulled, and they pulled, but could they pull that turnip up? No.”
Fox spent the next three years working on a book inspired by the folktale.
The result is Meerkat Mayhem — her 49th picture book, published this month — in which a snack-loving meerkat gets stuck in his hole, and, one by one, his animal friends come to help pull him out.
“What children love is the excitement of the repetition,” Fox says. (Supplied: Penguin Books Australia)
Illustrations by Judy Horacek — who has worked with Fox on five books, including the much-celebrated Where Is the Green Sheep? — bring the tale to life.
“This story is a total rip-off of The Great Big Enormous Turnip,” Fox admits.
But the author added her own twist, of course.
“It’s modernised,” she says. “The Great Big Enormous Turnip had no characterisation, and it had no amusing vocabulary. So, I have value-added.”
A cast of African animals
Meerkat Mayhem’s cumulative form and use of repetition — “they pulled, and they pulled, and they pulled” — appeals to young readers, who Fox says have been quick to join in when she’s given public readings of the new book.
“It’s safe, it’s predictable,” she says. “When things are predictable, children are happy.”
In a departure for an author known for titles featuring Australian native fauna — such as Wombat Divine, Possum Magic and Koala Lou — Fox has populated Meerkat Mayhem with a cast of African animals.
It’s a nod to her childhood growing up in Zimbabwe, where her parents worked as teaching missionaries. Plus, she adds, “Who does not love a meerkat?”
“An understanding of the rhythm of language … is essential,” Fox says of writing picture books for children. (Supplied: Penguin Books Australia)
Fox knew from the outset who she wanted to illustrate the book.
“I begged for Judy Horacek to do it,” she says.
Perhaps counterintuitively, authors and illustrators tend to work independently of each other, so seeing the finished book complete with illustrations is always a thrill for Fox.
She admits her first reaction isn’t always positive, however.
When she saw Julie Vivas’s illustrations for her second book — Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge, named after her father and published in 1984 — Fox initially felt disappointment.
“Wilfred did not look like the child that I had written about in my head,” she says.
“I have a picture of my father in about 1920 … standing beside his mother, who’s in a hammock between two fruit trees, and he’s such a cute, polite little boy.
“And Julie Vivas [who also illustrated Fox’s debut, Possum Magic] produced this hysterical, red-headed Aussie kid. And I thought, ‘No, no, no, no!'”
Fox soon came round to the red-headed Wilfred.
“Of course, it’s perfect,” she says.
The magic formula to writing a captivating kids’ book
Fox says one of the tricks to writing kids’ books is to remember adults often do the reading.
“[It means] you have to amuse the grown-up as well as the child, without patronising anybody … It’s quite hard, but the last line of [Meerkat Mayhem] — ‘Anyone for a snack?’ — everybody who reads that last line laughs because, of course, he’s a greedy guts.”
Fox has a wide array of influences that have shaped her as a writer: the King James Bible, which featured prominently in her childhood; her stint at drama school in the UK in the 70s; and Dr Seuss, whose books she read to her daughter as a child.
All imbued her with the sense of rhythm that makes her books such a hit with readers.
“The rhythms of the Bible are faultless,” she says.
But the process of meticulously crafting sentences that flow off the page is long and drawn-out.
“It’s incredibly important to have the right number of syllables in each line … You can’t have one or two syllables that are out,” she explains.
“That’s why it’s such a nightmare for me writing.”
Fox’s exactitude has paid off: her first book — Possum Magic, published in 1983 — was an instant bestseller, with its first run of 5,000 copies selling out before it was officially launched.
“After that, they were publishing 10,000 at a time, then 25,000 at a time,” Fox says. “It just went wild.”
Twenty years later, Fox had a sense that Where Is the Green Sheep? — which took 11 months to write its 190 words — might be a hit when her daughter read it for the first time.
“She was really pleased with it. I thought, ‘Oh, perhaps this has got something’.”
Her instincts were right: Where Is the Green Sheep? has sold more than 2.5 million copies worldwide since it was published in 2004.
‘Our hearts are the same’
Children’s literacy has been a lifelong passion for Fox, who taught literacy studies at Flinders University until she retired in the 90s.
She believes much of the joy of a picture book lies in the opportunity it creates for “togetherness”.
“It’s the moment,” she says.
“When you’re reading a picture book to a child, they’re often on your knee, or they’re sitting on the couch beside you, or you’re on your knees at their bedside.
“It’s the warmth that surrounds it: I feel safe. I feel loved. I’m important enough for my mum or dad to take 10 minutes out of their busy day [to read to me].”
“Dr Seuss is infallibly correct with his rhythms,” Fox says. (Supplied: Penguin Random House Australia)
Many of Fox’s books — such as I’m Australian, Too and Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes — contain messages about social justice and inclusivity, values the author holds dearly.
“We’re all humans,” she says. “We all have hopes. We all have dreams. Our blood is the same, our hearts are the same.”
But she says the message is always a secondary consideration when writing a picture book.
“First, you have to entertain. First, you have to have fun. First, it’s got to be a happy, joyful read for the children it’s intended for. It has to be entertainment first. If it’s message first, it dies.”
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