Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge
1984 Children's picture book by Mem Fox
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Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge is a 1984 children's picture book by Mem Fox. The book 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.
First edition | |
| Author | Mem Fox |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Julie Vivas |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's picture book, poetry |
| Published | 1984 (Omnibus Books) |
| Publication place | Australia |
| Media type | Print (hardback) |
| Pages | 32 (unpaginated) |
| ISBN | 9780949641168 |
| OCLC | 19618469 |
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]
