Tough Boris by Mem Fox

Fox, Mem, and Kathryn Brown. Tough Boris. New York: Harcourt Paperbacks, 1998.

Tough Boris was written by Mem Fox, the author of many children’s books and scholarly articles including, "Men Who Weep, Boys Who Dance: The Gender Agenda between the Lines in Children's Literature.” While some may say Fox technically is not a full blown insider to male gender representation since she is female, I believe that her experience with teaching and learning about children qualifies her as highly “informed.” She is and academic and has spent much of her life as an educator, reader, and writer of children’s literature, giving her much insight into the gender stereotype present in literature. It was in this article where I actually learned of the book. Tough Boris is the story of a big burly pirate who cries when his parrot dies. The book focuses on breaking the stereotype that men do not and should not cry, and according to Fox’s article, this was intentional. In my opinion the book’s literary devices, its repetition and minimal word use, are very successful and would definitely appeal to the preschool- grade 2 age group that, according to the School Library Journal, it is aimed at. Each page has a maximum of between 4 and 10 words which allows the story to be told in the illustrations. Lisa Dennis, of the School Library Journal calls the book an “entertaining book of adventure” (Dennis 1994). Unfortunately, Dennis’ and all others reviews I found of the book, fail to comment on the content of the broken male stereotype within the book, the issue of crying, which makes me aware that some might not consider Fox’s underlying theme strong enough. Personally, I recognize my biased reading of the book, since I read of Fox’s intentions in her article, but I think part of the book’s great success is that it doesn’t hit you over the head with the topic of male gender representation. I think the issue’s subtlety is a positive because rather than telling its readers what to think about the issue, it just opens up a discussion and creates recognition, which is important for the age group at which the book is aimed.