Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge
{{short description|1984 Children's picture book by Mem Fox}}
{{Use Australian English|date=January 2018}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2018}}
{{Infobox book
| name = Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge
| image = Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge.jpg
| image_size =
| caption = 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.{{Cite journal |last=Fox |first=Mem |author-link=Mem Fox |date=May 1993 |editor-last= |editor-first= |title=Politics and literature: Chasing the "isms" from children's books |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20201162 |journal=The Reading Teacher |volume=46 |issue=8 |pages=654–658 |jstor=20201162 |via=}}
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".{{cite journal |last=Peters |first=John |title=Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1966029056 |url-access=subscription |journal=School Library Journal |volume=32 |issue=6 |date=February 1986 |location=New York |page=73 |id={{ProQuest|1966029056}} }}
Alzheimer's Australia found it "sensitively written".{{cite web |url=https://www.fightdementia.org.au/national/library/book-review-wilfred-gordon-mcdonald-partridge |title=Book review – Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge |website=Alzheimer's Australia |access-date=7 December 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2017-02-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170217005337/https://www.fightdementia.org.au/national/library/book-review-wilfred-gordon-mcdonald-partridge}} A review by the NYU Langone Medical Center called it "a magnificently written and illustrated story about communication".{{cite web |url=http://medhum.med.nyu.edu/view/1648 |title=Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge |website=medhum.med.nyu.edu |access-date=7 December 2016}}
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.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{Portal|Children's literature}}
- [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/19618469 Library holdings of Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge}}
Category:1984 children's books
Category:Australian children's books
Category:Fiction about amnesia