And she and Hush set off around Australia to find the food that will make Hush visible. Eventually Grandma remembers that, “it’s something to do with food. The food in Possum Magic is obviously important, but did you know how important?īut Grandma Poss has trouble finding the magic to make Hush visible again and, although Hush tells her she doesn’t mind, “in her heart of hearts she did”. Because she is invisible she lacks subjectivity and, therefore, agency. But Hush has no reflection in the mirrored surface of the pool. Most pertinently Hush wants “to know what looks like.” In Julie Vivas’s illustration Grandma Poss leans over a pool of water witha fuzzy outline of Hush beside her. Hush has lots of adventures but there comes a time when she wants to be visible again. Grandma Poss makes Hush invisible to keep her safe from snakes. In this storybook the quest is for personal identity, a universal, internalized, and significantly contemporary goal. Mem Fox’s Possum Magic is a quest narrative, following an ancient tradition in which a hero strives for something of value such as treasure or a beautiful woman. First she points out that this is an example of a Quest Narrative. In case you were wondering just how deep it’s possible to go in the analysis of a seemingly simple children’s story such as this one, Carolyn Daniel has much to say about Possum Magic in her book Voracious Children: Who eats whom in children’s literature.

Each year on Hush’s birthday they eat the same food ‘just to make sure Hush doesn’t turn visible again’, thereby creating a kind of mythology about why (white) Australians eat certain foods as celebration. (I’m going to put aside the fact that snakes seem to ‘see’ via vibrations, so an invisibility superpower wouldn’t necessarily protect her…) But soon, Hush longs to be able to see herself again, the two possums make their way across Australia to find the ‘magic food’ (quintessentially Australian food) that will make Hush visible once more. Grandma Poss uses bush magic to make a child possum (Hush) invisible so that Hush won’t be eaten by snakes. WHAT HAPPENS IN THE STORY OF POSSUM MAGIC

Possum Magic is a classic Australian picture book by Mem Fox.

Possum magic