Jam

Margaret Mahy

Internationally recognized as one of the all-time best writers for young readers, Margaret Mahy’s books have been translated into all the major languages of the world. Twice a winner of the prestigious Carnegie Medal, she also won the Esther Glen Award five times and the Observer Teenage Fiction Award once.

Born in a country town in New Zealand, Margaret was the oldest of five children and grew up with a strong sense of being part of a close family. In 1936, the year she was born, only four books for children were published in New Zealand. Mahy was influential in changing the landscape of children’s literature in her homeland, becoming one of its most prolific authors with over 100 titles to her name. Her diverse output includes poetry, picture books, works for older children, teenage novels, television scripts, and stories for magazines and newspapers.

Mahy’s vivid imagination made her school days interesting, if not always easy. After seeing The Jungle Book, she famously told her classmates she could talk to animals, resorting to “gibberish and eating leaves and drinking out of puddles” to prove her connection to the animal kingdom. She began writing as a child, admitting to being a “show-off” who carried notebooks around to introduce them into conversations.

She started writing children’s books in earnest at eighteen while training to be a children’s librarian. Her significant breakthrough came fifteen years later, in 1968, when an American publisher discovered the text of A Lion in the Meadow and bought it, along with her existing body of work. Eight of her books were published simultaneously.

Mahy became a full-time writer in 1980, releasing The Haunting. With this novel, she became the first writer outside the UK to win the Carnegie Medal. She won the award again two years later for The Changeover. In 1986, she received the IBBY Honour Book Award. In February 1993, Margaret was awarded New Zealand’s highest honor, The Order of New Zealand, and she held an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Canterbury.

Margaret was a frequent and much-loved visitor to schools and libraries, known for her energetic performances.

Margaret Mahy passed away on July 23, 2012.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.