Margaret Mahy Article Index for
Margaret
Website Links For
Margaret
 

Information About

Margaret Mahy




  Birth Place Whakatane , New Zealand
  Occupation Novelist , Librarian
  Debut Works A Lion In The Medow
  Website Margaret Mahy Pages


Margaret Mahy ONZ (born in Whakatane , New Zealand on 21 March 1936 ) is a well-known New Zealand author of children's and young adult books. While the plots of many of her books have strong supernatural elements, her writing concentrates on the themes of human relationships and growing up.

One of her better-known books is ''The Haunting'', which received the Carnegie Medal of the British Library Association . She has written a little less than 50 novels, including the recent ''Alchemy'' in 2002. Among her children's books, ''A Lion in the Meadow'' and ''The Man Whose Mother was a Pirate'' are considered national classics. Her novels have been translated into German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Italian, Japanese, Catalan and Afrikaans. In addition, some stories have been translated into Russian, Chinese and Icelandic.

For her contributions to children's literature she has been made a member of the Order Of New Zealand . The Margaret Mahy Medal Award was established by the New Zealand Children's Book Foundation in 1991 to provide recognition of excellence in children's literature, publishing and literacy in New Zealand. In 2006 she was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Award (known as the Little Nobel Prize ) in recognition of a "lasting contribution to children's literature".

Margaret Mahy currently resides on Banks Peninsula , Canterbury , in the South Island of New Zealand.


EARLY LIFE


Mahy has five Sibling s, of which she is the eldest. She was raised in her birthplace of Whakatane . Her father was a Bridge Builder and often told his children Adventure stories which later influced Mahy's writing. Her mother was a Teacher . She wrote her first published story when she was 7, which was published in the Bay Of Plenty ''Beacon''. She went to the local high school, where she was acknowledged as a talented Swimmer . New Zealand Book Council Biography


EDUCATION


Mahy completed her undergraduate she established the Margaret Mahy Fees Scholarship. Undergraduate scholarships at Canterbury


AWARDS



BIBLIOGRAPHY


  • ''A Lion in the Meadow'' (1972)

  • ''The Great Piratical Rambustification & The Librarian and the Robbers'' (1978) with Quentin Blake (collection)

  • ''Raging Robots and Unruly Uncles'' (1981)

  • ''The Pirates' Mixed-Up Voyage'' (1983)

  • ''The Changeover: A Supernatural Romance'' (1984)

  • ''Aliens in the Family'' (1985)

  • ''JAM: A True Story'' (1985)

  • '' The Catalogue Of The Universe '' (1985)

  • ''The Tricksters'' (1986)

  • ''The Changeover'' (1986)

  • ''The Man Whose Mother Was a Pirate'' (1987) with Margaret Chamberlain

  • ''The Five Sisters'' (1987) with Patricia MacCarthy

  • ''Memory (1987)

  • ''The Downhill Crocodile Whizz & Other Stories'' (1988) (collection)

  • ''The Boy Who Bounced and Other Magic Tales'' (1988) (collection)

  • ''The Door in the Air and Other Stories'' (1988)

  • ''Leaf Magic and Five Other Stories'' (1988) with Margaret Chamberlain (collection)

  • ''The Blood-and-Thunder Adventure on Hurricane Peak'' (1991)

  • ''The Girl With the Green Ear: Stories About Magic in Nature'' (1992) (collection)

  • ''The Haunting'' (1982)

  • ''Dangerous Spaces'' (1992)

  • ''A Tall Story and Other Tales'' (1992) (collection)

  • ''The Greatest Show Off Earth'' (1994)

  • ''The Horribly Haunted School'' (1998)

  • ''24 Hours'' (2000)

  • '' Alchemy '' (2004)

  • ''Don't Read This!'' (2004)

  • '' Maddigans Fantasia (2005)

  • ---also made into a TV Series starring Michael Hurst , Tim Balme , Danielle Cormack Maddigan's Quest homepage

  • ''Kaitangata Twitch (2005)



SEE ALSO



  NAME Mahy, Margaret
  SHORT DESCRIPTION Author
  DATE OF BIRTH March 21 , 1936
  PLACE OF BIRTH Whakatane , New Zealand




REFERENCES