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y separately published work icon What a Mess Fang Fang! single work   children's fiction   children's  
Issue Details: First known date: 1998... 1998 What a Mess Fang Fang!
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Fang Fang always makes a mess when she eats wontons. How can she be neat and clean like her twin cousins, Ling May and Ling Sun? Fang Fang is faced with a dilemma but when her grandmother (Nai Nai) makes her a present of a small jade cat Fang Fang grows in confidence. (From Back cover)

Teaching Resources

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This work has teaching resources.

Teacher’s notes from publisher’s website.

Affiliation Notes

  • Associated with the AustLit subset Australian Literary Responses to 'Asia' as the work contains Chinese characters.
  • This work is affiliated with the AustLit subset Asian-Australian Children's Literature and Publishing because it has Chinese characters.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Norwood, Norwood, Payneham & St Peters area, Adelaide - North / North East, Adelaide, South Australia,: Omnibus Books , 1998 .
      image of person or book cover 2171777365894281393.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 51p.
      Description: illus.
      ISBN: 1862913765
      Series: y separately published work icon Solos Southwood (publisher), Omnibus Books (publisher), Norwood : Omnibus Books , 1997-2004 Z979918 1997-2004 series - publisher children's fiction children's
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Southwood ,
      2000 .
      Extent: 51p.
      Description: illus.
      ISBN: 1903207150 (pbk.)

Other Formats

Works about this Work

Cross-Generational Negotiations : Asian-Australian Picture Books Clare Bradford , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: Papers : Explorations into Children's Literature , December vol. 17 no. 2 2007; (p. 36-42)

Clare Bradford discusses a number of picture books and a junior novel in which the narratives are structured around interactions between Asian-Australian children and their grandparents; Grandpa and Ah Gong (Xiangyi Mo and Morag Loh, 1995), Old Magic (Alan Baillie, 1996), Grandpa's Mask (Di Wu and Jing Jing Guo, 2001), What a Mess Fang Fang! (Sally Rippin, 1998). She proposes that these texts provide an opportunity to introduce 'ideas around change, continuity and cultural meanings' to young readers through their specific focus on 'the everyday experiences of growing up in a multicultural society' (36). As children's texts 'habitually hinge upon narratives of growth and development' (36) Bradford points out that crosscultural and cross-generational relations between grandparents and their grandchildren are often informed by 'different experiences and perspective that are negotiated through external objects, artefacts and markings' (37). There is an emphasis on 'making' in the texts, that Bradford reads, in terms of multicultural discourse, as suggestive of Stevenson's notion that cultural citizens 'construct themselves...by learning to move within multiple and diverse communities' (41). Bradford's analysis points to the 'limitations of the picture book form' in 'representing the social and cultural complexities of diasporic experience' (41); however, she also sees these texts as speaking to children's literature more generally through 'a surplus of meaning, an excess of signification that seeks to provide pleasure while socializing young citizens' (41).

[Review] Cat Chocolate [et al] Joan Zahnleiter , 1998 single work review
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , November vol. 13 no. 5 1998; (p. 32)

— Review of Cat Chocolate Kate Darling , 1998 single work children's fiction ; What a Mess Fang Fang! Sally Rippin , 1998 single work children's fiction ; The Sea Dog Penny Matthews , 1998 single work children's fiction ; Elephant's Lunch Kate Walker , 1998 single work children's fiction
[Review] Cat Chocolate [et al] Joan Zahnleiter , 1998 single work review
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , November vol. 13 no. 5 1998; (p. 32)

— Review of Cat Chocolate Kate Darling , 1998 single work children's fiction ; What a Mess Fang Fang! Sally Rippin , 1998 single work children's fiction ; The Sea Dog Penny Matthews , 1998 single work children's fiction ; Elephant's Lunch Kate Walker , 1998 single work children's fiction
Cross-Generational Negotiations : Asian-Australian Picture Books Clare Bradford , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: Papers : Explorations into Children's Literature , December vol. 17 no. 2 2007; (p. 36-42)

Clare Bradford discusses a number of picture books and a junior novel in which the narratives are structured around interactions between Asian-Australian children and their grandparents; Grandpa and Ah Gong (Xiangyi Mo and Morag Loh, 1995), Old Magic (Alan Baillie, 1996), Grandpa's Mask (Di Wu and Jing Jing Guo, 2001), What a Mess Fang Fang! (Sally Rippin, 1998). She proposes that these texts provide an opportunity to introduce 'ideas around change, continuity and cultural meanings' to young readers through their specific focus on 'the everyday experiences of growing up in a multicultural society' (36). As children's texts 'habitually hinge upon narratives of growth and development' (36) Bradford points out that crosscultural and cross-generational relations between grandparents and their grandchildren are often informed by 'different experiences and perspective that are negotiated through external objects, artefacts and markings' (37). There is an emphasis on 'making' in the texts, that Bradford reads, in terms of multicultural discourse, as suggestive of Stevenson's notion that cultural citizens 'construct themselves...by learning to move within multiple and diverse communities' (41). Bradford's analysis points to the 'limitations of the picture book form' in 'representing the social and cultural complexities of diasporic experience' (41); however, she also sees these texts as speaking to children's literature more generally through 'a surplus of meaning, an excess of signification that seeks to provide pleasure while socializing young citizens' (41).

Last amended 11 Aug 2017 07:50:58
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