Hattie and the Fox

Hattie and the Fox
Mem Fox
Patricia Mullins
Scholastic, 1987 originally published in Australia in 1986
Early Elementary, K-1
Animal Fiction


The book starts out with Hattie the chicken spotting something in the bushes in an alarmed fashion( I suppose she is frightened or taking off guard). She must have alarmed some of the other animals because at first the goose and duck are also alarmed by Hattie's discovery, "Good grief said the goose. Well, well! said the pig. Who cares? said the sheep. So what? said the horse. What next? said the cow." Then Hattie can see more of the creature in the bushes and tells the other animals. All of the other farm animals repeat what they said the first time Hattie made her discovery. This continues until finally a Fox jumps out of the bushes, and she flies into a nearby tree. All of the farm animals freak out and the cow Moos so loud that the Fox gets scared and runs away. The farm animals were so surprised that none of them spoke for a long while.

This would be a perfect book for young children because it has a very predictable story line. For the most part the animals say the same thing over and over again. Usually what Hattie says just builds on what she told the animals on the last page. The book is perfect for beginning readers because of the element of predictability. It is also good because they are being introduced to farm animals and can see them on the pages and their names is also printed with everything they say. For say a kindergarten to have them point out the different animals to see if they could identify and tell the difference in the animals. The paintings in the book are done with watercolor. The paintings are pretty simplistic but it goes along with the story line since it is a fairly simplistic book. The entire book is done with a two page spread with the illustrations flowing from page to page. The paintings also illustrate what is being said by the farm animals and towards the end they begin to have more expression in their body language. This could also help children to start to identify what different emotions look like. This was not my favorite book by Mem Fox but I think it is very appropriate for young children. It is also a pretty accurate portrayal of what, in my opinion, what the farm animals would say if they could actually talk!