Throughout her childhood she was making up stories. Before she could write she drew them. By the time she was seven she knew she wanted to write books. Margaret Mahy was a wizard of words and a spinner of magical stories. She was New Zealand's best known author for children, wrote more than 200 books and often appeared in a purple wig or a penguin suit while she delighted audiences with vivacious readings of her stories. But who was Margaret Mahy? What was she like as a child? How did she become a writer? Where did her weird and wonderful ideas come from? Turn these pages and step into a world of the magical Margaret Mahy.

In a land caught between the sea and cloud, where the natural landscape still refuses civilization, there are those; the composers of words, tellers of tales, that help shape the minds of the people that live on its shores. They are spiritcarvers. New Zealand writing today is engaging in an intent struggle to subvert multiple shapes into voices. These interviews, as a record of biographical orature, are shaped into presenting the figure of the storyteller through memory and language; explorations of how we imagine and create ourselves with and into words. Here we encounter the dichotomy of fiction and non-fiction, myth and consensual reality, imagination and truth: do we live within our own selected fictions? Identity is shaped by the authors' sense of displacement as well as of belonging - meeting otherness with dispossession, discovering connection through isolation. Among the focal points of the interviews are the role of women's writing, Maori writing, interrelations among different cultures, and the influence of literary and oral tradition within New Zealand.

The book focuses on individuals writing in the '90s, but also includes 12 classic authors (e.g., Mark Twain, Louisa May Alcott, J.R.R. Tolkien) who are still widely read by teens. It also covers some authors known primarily for adult literature (e.g., Stephen King) and some who write mainly for middle readers but are also popular among young adults (e.g., Betsy Byars). An affordable alternative to multivolume publications, this book makes a great collection development tool and resource for author studies. It will also help readers find other books by and about their favorite writers.

First published in 1992, this Sourcebook is a basic working tool for all those concerned with children’s reading. It will help librarians and teachers to select a comprehensive stock of children’s’ fiction for their institutions.The authors in the sourcebook have been selected on the grounds of importance, popularity and current availability. Author entries are arranged in alphabetical order and indexes provided by title, series, age-range and genre. Each entry consists of some background information, and evaluative comment on style of the book, a list of the authors books with publisher, date and price, and literary agent where applicable. There is a suggestion of similar authors, sequels, related series and reader age range.

Book Band: Grey - Ideal for ages 8+ A magical collection of short stories from double Carnegie Medal winner Margaret Mahy. A wizard's house with coloured windows that look into worlds of treetops and deserts, cloud-castles and diamonds. Two riddles that, once solved, will stop Shock Forest from burning. A flute-playing bear and a boy who just wants to spread his wings and fly... These fantastical short stories will take readers on a journey; sometimes haunting, sometimes surreal but always enchanting. This collection of brilliant stories from double Carnegie Medal winner Margaret Mahy has wonderful illustrations by Laura Borio and is perfect for children who are developing as readers. The Bloomsbury Readers series is packed with book-banded stories to get children reading independently in Key Stage 2 by award-winning authors like double Carnegie Medal winner Geraldine McCaughrean and Waterstones Prize winner Patrice Lawrence. With engaging illustrations and online guided reading notes written by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE), this series is ideal for home and school. For more information visit www.bloomsburyreaders.com. 'Any list that brings together such a quality line up of authors is going to be welcomed ... Bloomsbury Readers are aimed squarely at children in Key Stage 2 and designed to support them as they start reading independently and while they continue to gain confidence and understanding.' Books for Keeps

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