22 May Freddie Fox
Written and Narrated By Samira Harris
We are over-the-moon delighted to announce the release of Freddie Fox by Samira Harris. It is the most beautiful and uplifting adventure story written from the heart for children facing big life challenges that sadly are becoming all to common in our current world climate.
Ever generous, during the corona pandemic, Samira decided the film needed to be available to children worldwide and she has made the film of Freddie Fox available as free online resource.
It means the world to us to be able to include Freddie Fox within our project A Thousand Grandparents & Bedtime Stories and the Peacing Together Vision for a Better World Story.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE FILM OF FREDDIE FOX
Samira is both the author and illustrator of Freddie Fox. Samira trained in fine art, achieving a BA Honours in drawing from The College of Arts, London. Her career in illustration developed after working with the Harry Potter cover illustrator Cliff Wright on his book ‘The Magic of Drawing’.
“Freddie started as a playful ditty to bring to children. It was inspired by a fox sunbathing with me in my London garden! Since then it became a 3000 word adventure in rhyme that I have performed to thousands of people at festivals and schools and on ITV.”
As a secondary school teacher, who has taught art to children for 20 years, she has been very touched by the huge number of children that face extreme life challenges from refugees to those living in abusive situations. This is why Freddie Fox is a hero’s tale which deals with serious issues such as persecution, disfiguration, bullying, depression, forced displacement and loneliness.
Freddie Fox story overall is uplifting and playful and enjoyed by children from the age of 3 upwards. Samira wrote Freddie Fox to inspire the courage in everyone to keep going when times are tough, to have strength to just take one step at a time, to believe in yourselves and maybe even have hope in the bigger hand of fate being there to support us when most needed.
Samira spent over a year of illustrating it and made it into a book. Ramsay S James then turned it into this film, which I narrated. It was given an incredible soundtrack by the music producer Tim Cross – unfortunately it was his last masterpiece as he passed away shortly after.
“Tim believed in the importance of this story so fully he slept in his music studio for three months with the soundtrack on loop so he would know how to sculpt it to perfection when he woke! Totally extraordinary!”
Samira chose to make the book like a cartoon book, with bright colourful illustrations, that carry lots of details so children can enjoy it again and again. The style of the illustrations reflects the mental experience of the lead character Freddie. So when everything is harmonious the pictures feel balanced and harmonious, when things are overwhelming or chaotic the illustrations become fragmented and deconstructed.
Samira broke the rules of doing a large format 36 page illustrated book, because her favourite childhood books were Tintin and Asterix, cartoon books that were both easy enough and advanced enough to be enjoyed throughout her childhood. Like her favourite books Freddie Fox is 90 pages long but she also chose to make it into a size that is easy for a child to hold; A5 landscape.
Samira is an Earth Angel. Her life is dedicated to kindness, compassion, joy, community and making the world a more beautiful place and we encourage you, if you can to also buy the book. The first edition is sold out but the second edition is on its way.
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