Do we like Mem Fox?
Our score: 8 out of 10. Her own words and books back migrants and refugees, with no harmful words or company turning up, but the record on her is fairly thin.
Mem Fox was born in Melbourne in 1946 to missionary parents and moved to Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, when she was six months old. She spent 19 years there, where her father ran teacher training at a mission near Bulawayo. She says she was putting on a show from the time she could walk, which helps explain why her books are so made for reading aloud.
Possum Magic, first published in 1983, is the book that made her name, and it has sold well over four million copies. She went on to write dozens of picture books, including Where Is the Green Sheep?. For decades she has also pushed one message: read to kids often and with life in your voice, and keep it a loving thing rather than a drill.
The nearest thing to a scandal is one that happened to her. In 2017 she was held for about two hours at Los Angeles airport over a visa problem the report describes as non-existent, and she called the treatment “disgraceful”. She emailed the US Embassy in Canberra and got a written apology within hours.
On the good stuff, she was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1993 for her contribution to Australian culture. In 2026 she picked up the Lloyd O'Neil Award for lifetime service to the local book industry. She also says she strongly supports unions and that every worker should be a member of one.
The caveat is that a children's author doesn't leave much of a paper trail on the big fights, so our evidence is thinner than for a politician or a pundit. We searched for court cases, accusations and complaints and found nothing against her. That's why the good-person test is a pass rather than a distinction, and it's a solid pass.