Mem Fox Books: Books, Read Aloud Activities & Teaching Ideas

 

Are you looking for heartwarming stories that help children build language, confidence, and a love of reading? Books by Mem Fox are a wonderful choice for young learners.

From Possum Magic to Whoever You Are and Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, her stories celebrate family, friendship, diversity, and the simple joys of childhood. Filled with rhythm, repetition, and rich language, they are perfect for read-alouds and early literacy activities.

Whether you're teaching in an ESL classroom, homeschooling, or working in a primary school, Mem Fox's books encourage meaningful conversations while helping children develop vocabulary, comprehension, and social-emotional skills.

Who Is Mem Fox?

Mem Fox is an Australian author and literacy advocate best known for writing engaging picture books that have delighted children around the world for decades.

Her stories are known for their rhythmic language, memorable characters, and gentle messages about kindness, belonging, family, and acceptance. Many of her books use repetition and predictable text, making them especially enjoyable for young readers and ideal for building early literacy skills.

Through her storytelling, Mem Fox inspires children to see the world with curiosity, compassion, and joy.

Why Use Mem Fox Stories?

Builds Early Literacy Skills

Rhythmic, repetitive language helps children develop vocabulary, fluency, phonological awareness, and confidence as readers.

Encourages Kindness and Empathy

Many stories celebrate friendship, family, diversity, and caring for others.

Perfect for Read-Alouds

The engaging text and natural rhythm invite children to join in, predict, and participate.

Supports Social-Emotional Learning

Children explore emotions, belonging, identity, and relationships through relatable stories.

Excellent Cross-Curricular Connections

Her books connect naturally with literacy, geography, art, multicultural studies, and social-emotional learning.

Favorite Mem Fox Books to Explore

These beloved picture books inspire language development while encouraging children to celebrate family, kindness, and the world around them.

Possum Magic

Grandma Poss and Hush travel across Australia searching for the magic that will make Hush visible again, discovering famous Australian foods and landmarks along the way.

Great for: Australia studies, animals, imagination, sequencing, food, geography, descriptive language.

You can extend this story with: Australian animal crafts, pretend cooking activities, map work, sequencing cards, dramatic play, and sensory bins.

Whoever You Are

A beautiful celebration of children around the world, reminding readers that although we may look different, we all share the same feelings, hopes, and dreams.

Great for: Diversity, kindness, empathy, multicultural education, community building, social-emotional learning.

You can extend this story with: World maps, family portraits, friendship activities, cultural celebrations, and "All About Me" projects.

Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes

This gentle story celebrates babies from many different places while showing that every child is unique and wonderfully alike.

Great for: Families, babies, body parts, counting, diversity, comparing and contrasting.

You can extend this story with: Baby photo comparisons, counting activities, family graphs, self-portraits, and nursery dramatic play.

Where Is the Green Sheep?

Children eagerly search for the missing green sheep while exploring colors, opposites, positions, and descriptive vocabulary.

Great for: Colors, positional words, prediction, vocabulary, early language, farm themes.

You can extend this story with: Hide-and-seek games, sheep crafts, color sorting, positional language activities, and felt board storytelling.

Time for Bed

A soothing bedtime story that follows baby animals as they settle down to sleep with their families.

Great for: Animals, bedtime routines, family, life cycles, calming transitions, vocabulary.

You can extend this story with: Animal matching games, bedtime routine sequencing, sensory play, dramatic play, and lullaby activities.

Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge

A touching story about a young boy who helps an elderly friend rediscover her memories through meaningful objects.

Great for: Families, grandparents, memories, empathy, friendship, oral language.

You can extend this story with: Memory boxes, family interviews, show-and-tell, storytelling baskets, and writing about special memories.

Fun Classroom Activities Inspired by Mem Fox

Create a Story Basket

Fill a basket with objects from one of the stories.

Include:

• Small animal figures
• Natural materials
• Story props
• Puppets

Children can retell the story using the objects, strengthening comprehension and oral language.

Explore Australia

After reading Possum Magic, learn about Australia.

Students can:

• Locate Australia on a map
• Learn about Australian animals
• Discover famous landmarks
• Taste or explore foods mentioned in the story

This builds geography and cultural awareness.

Celebrate Our Differences

Inspired by Whoever You Are, invite children to create self-portraits.

Discuss:

• What makes us unique?
• What do we all have in common?
• How can we show kindness to others?

This encourages empathy and classroom community.

Memory Box Activity

Inspired by Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge, children bring a small object from home that reminds them of a special memory.

They can:

• Describe the object
• Tell the story behind it
• Listen respectfully to classmates

This strengthens speaking and listening skills.

Sheep Hunt

Hide paper sheep around the classroom.

Students search for:

• Red sheep
• Blue sheep
• Sleeping sheep
• The green sheep

This makes vocabulary review active and engaging.

Family Connections

Create a class book about families.

Students can include:

• Family members
• Favorite traditions
• Things they enjoy doing together

This encourages writing and personal connections.

Animal Sorting

Use the baby animals from Time for Bed.

Children sort them by:

• Habitat
• Size
• Farm or wild animals
• Number of legs

This combines literacy with science and math.

Story Sequencing

Choose one of Mem Fox's books and ask students to retell the events in order using pictures or sentence strips.

This strengthens comprehension and narrative skills.

Puppet Retelling

Invite children to use puppets to act out their favorite scenes.

Focus on:

• Character dialogue
• Story sequence
• Expression
• Oral language

This builds confidence and speaking skills.

Kindness Tree

Create a classroom tree where students add leaves describing acts of kindness they notice throughout the week.

Inspired by the caring messages found in many of Mem Fox's stories, this activity promotes a positive classroom community.

Why Teachers Love Mem Fox

Mem Fox's stories are much more than beautifully written picture books—they are powerful tools for building literacy, empathy, and a lifelong love of reading.

Through rhythmic language, memorable characters, and meaningful themes, children develop vocabulary, comprehension, oral language, and social-emotional skills while discovering the joy of books.

Whether your focus is reading, writing, geography, social-emotional learning, or early language development, Mem Fox's stories provide countless opportunities for meaningful exploration and discussion.

So gather your students, open a Mem Fox book, and let the warmth, rhythm, and wonder of her storytelling inspire your classroom one page at a time.