#margaret mahy

[tomoleary]

Brian Froud “The Railway Engine and the Hairy Brigands” by Margaret Mahy (1973)

[garfieldisbetterthanyou]

GHOSTS - Margaret Mahy

i went through a bunch of poetry books i had from my childhood and found this poem, mind immediately went to “oh wow call of duty reference”, as per usual

anyway peep the hidden meanings

[wonderingcheshirecat]

This one, absolutely. This was, at the time, the most amazing book ever. I can't even find the original title in English, because i don't have a copy. At the time i only got books from the library because i read so many, this was revolutionary, i don't even know how many time i took it home and re-read it. Years later it wasn't as revolutionary, but i found it a nice read anyway. It was marked 16+ in the old edition and i felt like a criminal taking it home and being younger, now it's marked 10+ and i honestly don't understand why. I remember it had some sex jokes too. Who cares, it was nice and it's fucking obscure enough i don't know what it's called in English bc the author wrote so many books.

Nobody understands the bond between a girl and the mediocre book she read when she was 13 years old.

[airyairyaucontraire]

My sister's old friend Lobelia and her daughter Hera* are here to stay for a few days (flew over from Australia) and Little Nephew is stoked as hell because he loves Hera and is very enthusiastic to play with her (although he isn't always a gentleman with her I must say, like yesterday they were playing with Lego and he would only let her have grey bricks!) and I just heard him complaining that she doesn't want to play with him at the moment but because of the kind of child he is, he didn't say, "Mummy, Hera won't play with me," he said, "Mummy, Hera's being disinclusive."

*These are not their names

[rowenabean]

On the one hand, this was an excellent op shop trip. On the OTHER hand, the actual GOAL of this op shop trip was to find a new bookshelf, which was already desperately needed and has now been upgraded to direly needed

[in-sufficientdata]

A bilingual book about the Māori creation story has won the highest accolade in children's literature.

Te Wehenga: The Separation of Ranginui and Papatūānuku by Motueka writer Mat Tait (Ngāti Apa ki te rātō) won the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year Award at New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults held at Wellington's Pipitea Marae.

Te Wehenga simultaneously tells the Māori creation pūrākau, which explains the beginning of the world, in te reo Māori and English.

[lilgayducky]

"No-no-no-no-nooooo..." Ink splatters cover my fingers, dripping like blood from my nails and oozing into the fibers of my new crochet top.

"ugh not again," I groan. My top is ruined, and my notebook is soaked. I flop backwards, scraps of paper flying around me as I land on the couch cushions. "Shit." I blink. Blurry balls of light spin in my vision as tears spill down my cheeks. My eyelashes stick together as I close them. My body wracking with sobs.

The fourth top I've ruined, the second couch, and the seventeenth notebook. Mum's gonna be furious. I toss the notebook across the room in a rage. There's no point. I'll never be a good enough writer. Sitting under a tree with my scruffy notebook and fancy pen, leaves drifting around me as I write desperately like I'm running out of time.

But alas. Another pen, broken in my hurry. I guess I'll never be a Hamilton. I'll never be distinguished like Shakespeare, or Hemingway, or Jane Austen. I'll never be creative like Margaret Mahy, spinning tales with quirky characters and colourful ideas. I'll never be funny like Dr Seuss, with his wacky creatures, and witty rhymes. I'll never have original ideas, or entertaining characters. My plots are bland and dull, my words spoilt with too much effort making them sound stupid. My handwriting messy across the page, ruined my the spilled ink of my crappy $2 pen from Kmart.

All artists start off small they say, but when do they get big? When do their small ideas grow and become incredible. Fairy tales have already been done, no room for more. Every new idea I come up with has already been done. Every word I've invented, already exists in some dictionary. Every character I believe is unique, has at least twenty doppelgangers. Genres have been worn bare, and everything is cliche. Unoriginal. Already been done.

How do I strive for success if everyone else is doing the same? How do I reach for the tallest mountains when there are none more left to climb. The moon has been reached. Even Mars. There's nowhere left to go and if you're only limited by your imagination then maybe I'm not good enough. Can't write without a prompt. Can't draw without a reference. Can't create without inspiration.

I copy, copy, copy. Everytime I think I've created something new... I see it in my favourite story the next day. How do I be original in a world that is so original already? Everyone is unique, everything is unique, and yet every person has seven doppelgangers? How does that work! In a world where everyone is different yet everyone is the same. How do I create?

I scrub my hands with soap like the ink that's stained my skin is the worst strain of COVID to no avail. Even the strongest sanitizer can't kill these germs. The germs of failure. A try hard. The germs of unsuccessful children. Of parents forcing them to take the easy root. There's no room for creativity anymore when everything has already been done and people desperate for original ideas just end up down a rabbit hole with no way out and everyone criticizing them. Do you know why so many artists were insane? Why Van Gogh cut off his ear? Why Sylvia Plath killed herself? Why so many artists had their peak, then came crashing down so heavily they left a scar in the Earth. In society.

"don't be like them" they tell us

"take the easy route" they feed us

"success only leads to failure" they repeat

"power corrupts" everyone's motto

Creativity is blooming. Yet CREATIVITY is dying. So fuck my hands, stained with the failure of my desperate attempts to leave my mark. The last of my sorry attempts to create.

[shadoedseptmbr]

Somehow i missed that they made Margaret Mahy's The Changeover into a movie how did i miss that it has fucking Timothy Spall in it AND Lucy Lawless wtf

it also looks 100% scarier and with extra added "Witchcraft is Bad" scenes which... i mean, i guess in a post-Satanic Panic world

i'm gonna need a friend to watch it with me, lol

[jlilycorbie]

Happy STS! Today, I'm pulling away from characters (finally 🤭) and asking about influences. Who are your literary influences? Can you see specific influences coming through in some of your specific works?

Happy STS (on an actual Saturday, even!)

I've been thinking about this for a while, and I'm both not sure and also positive if I didn't mention Patricia C. Wrede and Garth Nix, I'd be a dirty liar.

There's probably more Jane Yolen in there than I'd immediately assume (especially thanks to the Books of the Great Alta). Definitely Charles de Lint and Terry Pratchett. Lynne Reid Banks, too. And Mary Downing Hahn. Peg Kehret and Caroline B. Cooney.

Considering the sheer amount of RL Stine's books I happily consumed, there's got to be plenty of influence there, too.

I've been going back to read foundational books for me lately, and Zenna Henderson deserves a place, especially for Holding Wonder. I only ever read one book by Margaret Mahy, The Door in the Air and Other Stories, but its influence is definitely there. I read San Diego Lightfoot Sue by Tom Reamy at a young age and I recently acquired a copy to find out how much of it's lurking around in my mind.

The Young Witches and Warlocks anthology edited by Isaac Asimov holds a big place in my past, too.

And for their anthologies and editorial choices, I should mention Ellen Datlow, Terri Windling, and Martin H. Greenberg.

And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Andrew Lang and the Brothers Grimm.

I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot of people who deserve a mention, but those are the people at the front of my mind lately.

[butchniqabi]

15 17 and 12?

15. recommend and review a book.

since im almost done with my reread (had to put it down for a hot minute) im going to recommend beloved by toni morrison. it is a heart breaking, heart repairing, horrible, beautiful, and painful read about the realities of slavery and the afterlife of slavery. sethe's determination to save her children comes at the cost of almost losing all of them, its a tragedy because her life was created by tragedy. but there is joy there, if only briefly, there is a life to be lived in the afterlife of slavery even if its hard, even if its full of sorrow and strife, there can be life after tragedy (and life after death in the case of beloved). beloved is not a passive ghost, she demands the question be asked "how do you know death is better for me when youve never died?" because sethe only wanted to save her kids from the horrors She knew, other horrors werent her business. so the story is a lot about give and take, push and pull, forgiveness and shame. im rambling but it is honestly a masterpiece and i recommend anyone who can handle its intense themes to read it.

17. top 5 children’s books?

okay so some of them are technically ya but the classification is based on books i read as a child

1. magician of hoad by margaret mahy

2. maddigan's fantasia by margaret mahy

3. coraline by neilman

4. trickster's choice by tamora pierce (yeah i know.)

5. i have to say the narnia series by cs lewis. im sorry i just have to. i do.

12 was answered!!!

[nusta]

Questa sera sono andata di nuovo a fare un'esplorazione in libreria per cercare regali. Mi segno il link all'altro post che avevo fatto tempo fa per averlo comodo per le prossime occasioni. Questa volta stavo cercando qualcosa per un ragazzo di seconda media, un target relativamente inedito per me, anche perché mi ricordo cosa leggevo io, ma non ho abbastanza confidenza con lui da sapere se è roba che potrebbe apprezzare (e non so nemmeno se ci siano ancora in circolazione i miei titoli preferiti... ecco, ora che ci penso devo controllare se le raccolte di racconti della super junior mondadori siano ancora pubblicate e in che veste grafica, c'era serie di "storie di giovani ..." che mi piaceva un sacco e tipo quella degli alieni era a cura di Asimov e un paio di storie mi fanno ancora emozionare se ci penso *_*)

Intanto stasera volevo sfogliare un libro di cui avevo sentito parlare per mio papà e con l'occasione ho fatto una prima raccolta di titoli interessanti, poi vedremo.

Ho trovato questo "Noi inarrestabili" di Yuval Noah Harari che è una strana versione della storia dell'umanità e delle sue interazioni col mondo, con un filo conduttore del tipo qual è il nostro superpotere, ha anche delle belle illustrazioni ed è fitto di testo ma mi pare molto scorrevole e vorrei leggerne qualche altra pagina per capire meglio il taglio. Quello di Michela Murgia l'avevo già visto e mi era piaciuto, mi sa che lo volevo regalare anche a una mia amica e non ricordo se poi l'ho fatto per davvero, ma prima o poi lo prenderò sicuramente. Di libri come Lost in translation invece ne ho già regalati e ne ho pure io e mi piacciono un sacco, e sarebbe forse anche particolarmente adatto, considerato che il destinatario ha già vissuto in tre paesi con tre lingue diverse.

Questi sulla lotta alla mafia e sulla vita di Gino Strada me li segno qui, ma sono troppo impegnativi per questa occasione, così come altri sulla Resistenza, i migranti e la storia delle battaglie sociali e del femminismo che per fortuna ormai riempiono scaffali interi. Mi piacerebbe un giorno essere nella condizione di regalarli, ma ancora non ci sono le premesse.

Questi due romanzi me li sono salvati a promemoria degli autori: La figlia della luna di Margaret Mahy l'ho letto un sacco di volte (è uno degli ex Gaia Mondadori, una delle mie collane preferite da ragazzina) e vorrei vedere se ci sono altre opere della stessa autrice, invece quello di Gaiman non l'avevo mai sentito e vorrei provare a trovarlo in inglese, magari per l'anno prossimo.

Per il mio giovane destinatario ho pensato anche alla serie di pseudo-diari di Keri Smith, che mi guardano sempre dallo scaffale e che non ho ancora avuto l'occasione di regalare a nessuno >_< anche se ogni Natale mi cade l'occhio perché sono bellissimi secondo me. Forse il più interessante per cominciare è anche il più comodo da portare, la versione pocket del diario da distruggere, però anche quello degli sbagli mi piace molto - così come quello del museo - insomma, ho letteralmente l'imbarazzo della scelta u_u

Per le mie nipotine invece per una delle prossime volte mi sono segnata questi, che sono dei fumetti, dato che un vero e proprio fumetto loro l'hanno sperimentato poche volte e sarebbe anche ora di cominciare seriamente, dico io *_*

A proposito di fumetti, personalmente ho lasciato un pezzo di cuore davanti ai ricettari di ramen e dumpling a fumetti, sono bellissimi *_* il ricettario ispirato a LOTR potrebbe essere interessante pure lui, ma non ho avuto tempo di sfogliarlo (e purtroppo credo non ci sia nessun fumetto >_<)

E per finire, la Storia dell'editoria è il libro che ho preso per mio papà, ne avevo sentito parlare in un podcast e mi pare molto scorrevole e perfetto per lui. "Educare controvento" di Lorenzoni lo vorrei leggere io, così come quello di Munroe, che è una specie di esercizio mentale di quelli che mi tengono sveglia la notte ma nel senso buono, tipo le lunghe discussioni di approfondimento qui sul tumblr su roba assurda. Gli ultimi due li ho salvati proprio pensando chi qui sul tumblr è appassionato di flora e fauna come me (anzi anche di più, direi, a giudicare da alcuni post): il librone sui vermi è tutt'altro che breve, è un bel malloppo rosa fitto di informazioni, mentre il Bestiario selvatico stava nel reparto delle robe dei musicisti e della musica per via dell'autore, Massimo Zamboni, e ha delle belle illustrazioni realizzate da Stefano Schiaparelli raccolte tutte insieme alla fine.

E insomma, più ne vedo e più ne vorrei e la scelta è davvero difficile! Mi sa che dovrò fare almeno un altro giro u_u

(Ma a chi la racconto, starò come minimo qualche altra dozzina di ore a girare tra gli scaffali XD)

[missanthropicprinciple]

Media Consumption: October-November Wrap-up

Well, October feels like a million years ago.

At the beginning of October I watched some movies. Waiting for Guffman 1996 was pretty fun, though not as sophisticated as Best in Show.

Hocus Pocus 2 was actually quite good! A lot of fun and similar in tone to the original. (I needed more scenes of the Sanderson sisters as kids because that was hilarious.)

In need of more SCTV cast movies I took on Armed and Dangerous (1986) which was awful but it was worth it to see Levy in buttless chaps, and The Last Polka (1985) which was a bit bland but genuinely funny.

I rewatched Splash mainly for Eugene Levy who was better than I remember him. It’s really a charming movie.

In a more serious vane, I watched The Little Stranger (2018) and Ghost Story (1981). While The Little Stranger is a bit more sophisticated I think it lacked a certain amount of charisma. Ghost Story was a little dated but still a memorable viewing. I recommend both.

On a lighter note I was finally able to finish watching a lovely and strange Aliens in the Family (1987) which was based on a book by Margaret Mahy.

It is geared for family viewing so it could have been a bit better dramatized. It had the potential to be a bit stronger but honestly it was really moving.

[reblogg3darts]

Not fair since they've only got like, three Agatha Christies (I've read them all); 2 Tess Gerritsen (all done up to year 2018); no Scarpetta series (Patricia Cornwell), two Harlan Coben, one JD Robb; NO Enid Blyton (seriously, if JK rowling is there, Enid Blyton should be there, too, AND Margaret Mahy), TWO Terry Pratchett... seriously??

Not even mentioning local writers I've read, which won't be listed in the anglo books, but, hey, if this list supposed to 'encourage' people to take up reading again, it's not impressive, limited, and discouraging. If this list was presented to me as a school kid, I'd burn them in front of the teacher and bring said teacher to my home library. :p

1000 Books You May Have Actually Read

[vtgbooks]

margaret mahy the great white man eating shark

[alrederedmixedmedia]

Alredered Remembers Margaret Mahy, New Zealand author of children’s and young adult books. on ger birthday.

"Fear can give you urgent wings."