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Reading Rockets' children's literature expert, Maria Salvadore, brings you into her world as she explores the best ways to use kids' books both inside — and outside — of the classroom.
Reading IS magic
I have always liked the books by Mem Fox, the Australian author whose stories have been popular among children for a long time.
There's often a spark of magic in Fox's books, sometimes in everyday situations. And sometimes there's "real" magic like in Possum Magic (Harcourt). Here, a young possum and his grandmother search for just the right food to make him visible again (something he ate made him invisible, of course).
There's a special kind of magic in the story of friendship between a young boy (with a big name) and his 96-year old friend in Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge (Kane Miller).
But the greatest magic of all is evident in her chatty, can-do approach to reading with young children shared in Reading Magic (Harvest). Fox creates just what the title says, Reading Magic with her anecdotes and information for adults about reading with children. An updated edition is being released just in time for summer. In this book, Mem Fox describes the magic that reading aloud creates, and makes that magic come alive in the stories she tells.
Mem Fox's passion for reading and children becomes absolutely contagious in Reading Magic. Hope you become inspired and find some summer reading magic, too.