Possum Magic

Mem Fox
Julie Vivas
1st publised by Omnibus Books in Australia, in USA by Abingdon in 1987
Animal Fiction
1-3 Grade (perhaps)

Deep in the Australian bush lived two possums, Hush and Grandma Poss. Grandma Poss was able to do bush magic, she could do all sorts of things. she made wombats turn blue and dingoes smile, emus shrink. The greatest thing she could do was make Hush invisible. Hush was able to have great adventures since no one could see her, although she was squished by koalas at times. Another thing she loved to do was slide down the back of a kangaroo. The main reason Grandma Poss made Hush invisible was so that she would not been able to be seen by the snakes that were in the bush. One day Hush told Grandma Poss that she wanted to be visible again, she wanted to know what she looked like. Grandma Poss started to look through all of her magic books but could not find the magic for making Hush visible. Hush told her that she did not mind even though in her heart she really wanted to be visible again. Finally the next day she figured out that it had something to do with eating people food, although she did not know exactly what. So later on that day they left the bush that they had always lived in to see if they could find the food to make Hush visible. They went to Adelaide first and ate Anzac biscuits, which are a traditional rolled oat and syrup cookie. Then they are Minties in Melbourne, they are a minty nougat candy. Off to Sydney where they ate steak and salad, then to Brisbane to eat pumpkin scones. They ate vegemite sandwiches in far north Australia, vegemite is a brand name for a salty yeart spread eating on sandwiches. Finally a tail appeared on Hush! Later on they ate a piece of pavlova at Perth beach and Hush's legs appeared( Pavlova is a meringue shell topped with fresh fruits and whipped cream). Hobart, later that night, they had lamington and Hush's head appeared! Lamington is a square sponge cake dipped in thin chocolate icing and rolled in coconut. From then on Hush was visible and every year on her birthday they had a special meal of vegemite sandwiches and a piece of pavlova and half a lamington. They did this just to make sure Hush stayed visible forever, I am sure also because it was delicious!

There is no real lesson to this book, it is just a fun book for children to read! It is all about magic and trying to solve a problem. I suppose a lesson that could be taken from it would be that even if you have a problem that you do not know the answer to you should keep searching for the answer. For younger children you might have to point this out to them as it might not be that obvious. This I must say is a charming book for the young reader! This is definitely not a story you would read in upper Elementary school. Also you could point out how Hush is not afraid to eat people food, since I am sure she has never had it before. The illustrations are done using watercolor and ink, I believe since it is not told in the book. The illustrations are just priceless, they are so cute, if I may. The possums and the Koala bears! However the possums are not the same as the American possum, they are in fact much more attractive an animal!