 First edition | |
| Author | Mem Fox |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Julie Vivas |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's picture book, poetry |
| Published | 1984 (Omnibus Books) |
| Media type | Print (hardback) |
| Pages | 32 (unpaginated) |
| ISBN | 9780949641168 |
| OCLC | 19618469 |
Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge is a 1984 children's picture book by Mem Fox. It is about a boy, Wilfrid, who helps an elderly friend, Nancy, to regain some of her memory. In 1998, American company Weston Woods Studio released a film adaptation of this book, narrated by the author with music by Ernest Troost.
Basis
The name of the boy who is the central character is that of Fox's father, Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge, who, with his wife, Nancy, was sent to Zimbabwe as a teaching missionary.[1]
Reception
School Library Journal wrote: "The illustrations - splashy, slightly hazy watercolors in rosy pastels - contrast the boy's fidgety energy with his friends' slow, careful movements and capture the story's warmth and sentiment".[2] Alzheimer's Australia found it "sensitively written".[3] A review by the NYU Langone Medical Center called it "a magnificently written and illustrated story about communication".[4]
Fox herself has noted the politically loaded aspects of the story, in having a white hero, separating the elderly from their families, and having a focus on nuclear families.[1]
References
- 1 2 Fox, Mem (May 1993). "Politics and literature: Chasing the "isms" from children's books". The Reading Teacher. 46 (8): 654–658. JSTOR 20201162.
- ↑ Peters, John (February 1986). "Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge". School Library Journal. New York. 32 (6): 73. ProQuest 1966029056 – via ProQuest.
- ↑ "Book review - Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge". Alzheimer's Australia. Archived from the original on 17 February 2017. Retrieved 7 December 2016.
- ↑ "Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge". medhum.med.nyu.edu. Retrieved 7 December 2016.