The often overlooked easy reader genre offers some of the most enduring characters, and subtle authorial constructions, in children's literature. In his 9 Fox books, James Marshall plays a never-ending game of hide and seek with readers, in that every encounter with the texts consistently reveals something previously unnoticed. This seeming bit of magic is due to the vast amount of latent or implicit content in the books. An analysis of this latent content will follow a brief background of the Fox series and its hilarious mammalian protagonist. An analysis of the series' history, hero, and hidden gems will serve to finally articulate Marshall's true contributions to the easy reader tradition.
Journal
The Looking Glass : New Perspectives on Children's LiteratureISSN
1551-5680Volume
13Issue
2Publisher
La Trobe UniversitySection Title
Emerging VoicesAuthor Biography
Shannon Ozirny is currently in her final year of the Master of Library and Information Studies (MLIS) program at the University of British Columbia. She holds a Master of Arts in Children's Literature from UBC and completed a thesis on easy readers entitled "The Big Shoes of Little Bear: the publication history, emergence, and literary potential of the easy reader." Her academic interest in the work of James Marshall and his Fox series began in 1988 - long before she was tall enough to see over the children's bookshelves at her public library.Date Created
2009-06-26Rights Statement
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OJS data migration 2025: https://ojs.latrobe.edu.au/ojs/index.php/tlg/article/view/140
