The Haunting

by Margaret Mahy

An alternate cover for this isbn can be found here.

After a shy and rather withdrawn eight-year-old begins receiving frightening supernatural images and messages, he learns about a family legacy which could be considered a curse or a rare gift.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Childrens, Young Adult, Horror, Paranormal, Mystery

135 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Margaret Mahy was 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.

Her books The Haunting and The Changeover: A Supernatural Romance both received the Carnegie Medal of the British Library Association. There have 100 children's books, 40 novels, and 20 collections of her stories published. Among her children's books, A Lion in the Meadow and The Seven Chinese Brothers 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 was 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 died on 23 July 2012.

On 29 April 2013, New Zealand’s top honour for children’s books was renamed the New Zealand Post Margaret Mahy Book of the Year award.

For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret...

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

In Margaret Mahy's 1982 Carnegie Medal winning middle grade novel The Haunting, for eight-year-old Barney (short for Barnaby), being "haunted" begins with a strange feeling of disconnection and then seeing a shadowy figure materialise claiming that Barnaby (that Barney) is dead. And of course, and naturally, Barney thinks the latter refers to himself, that he is dead or soon will be dead, so it indeed makes sense for me when Barney later learns that his great uncle for whom he is named has just died, that Barney's relief at not being destined to become a corpse makes him faint. However, there is indeed quite a bit more to come in The Haunting, as Barney keeps on experiencing the uncanny, with creepy sounding footsteps coming nearer and an imperious voice insisting that Barney must go with him (and that this is making Barney not only feel but also to look haunted and changing the colour of his eyes to a jaundiced and unfamiliar yellow, and to the point that not only Barney but his family, and in particular his sisters are beginning to notice and actively worry).

But after it is revealed in The Haunting that there are bona fide magicians in Barney's family (or rather in the family of the deceased mother, in the Scholars), it finally is suggested (and also believed) that Barney is actually not really being haunted (and certainly not by some disembodied spirit) but that he is in fact being stalked by his very much alive Great-Uncle (and magician) Cole who wants Barney for himself and as his successor (as his assistant), that Cole had been rejected by his mother as a boy for being a magician, but indeed and strangely, that many members of Barney's family, and not just Cole, are in fact magicians, including the great-grandmother, who by rejecting her son, also was thus truly rejecting herself, all of which comes to a point and to a culmination when Cole shows up in person to claim Barney, opening up all types of strange family secrets, and kind of also upsetting Barney's sister Tabitha a bit (as it turns out that she is the only one of the three siblings who is not a magician and feels rather left out).

Now with regard to The Haunting as a story, well, I must say that I do feel majorly conflicted regarding my personal reading pleasure. For while I have definitely enjoyed how Margaret Mahy has penned the general family dynamics in The Haunting and really appreciate the positive relationship Barney, Tabitha and Troy have with their stepmother Claire (as indeed, even in stories that are not fairy and folktales, stepmothers often are depicted as problematic and toxic in far too many children's novels and it sure is appealing to see Mahy present Claire as sympathetic, empathetic and totally loving her step children and they her), sorry, but the paranormal aspects of The Haunting, the magician angle and that Barney is possibly being haunted (but is in reality stalked by a freaky great uncle), all that kind of leaves at least for me personally very much to be desired. For one, I am not a huge fan of paranormal stories anyhow and thus right from square one, that this is indeed a main part of The Haunting is simply not at all to my personal reading tastes. For two, I do not think that in The Haunting, the paranormal and the realistic aspects of Margaret Mahy's text are ever all that smoothly and readably combined. And finally, for three (and probably the main reason why my rating for The Haunting has ended up only being two stars), considering that Mahy tackles some pretty heavy duty family issues (like secrets, parental rejection and the like) in The Haunting, in my humble opinion, the magician, the paranormal incidents, they kind of lessen and dilute the family dysfunction thematics to the point that I have found much of the narrative inadvertently and problematically funny and often overly weird (well, at least, this certainly has been the case for me regarding The Haunting).

[Eleanor · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I could use one word to describe this novel... it would be - odd. Which makes it genuinely discordant and spooky for a psychological drama, dotted with very beautiful chilling descriptions... but the strange choice to make the novel carry itself entirely on dialogue means it runs out of steam very fast, at the expense of plot and story development. If the novel was a play, it would consist of one act! Seriously, ONE thing happens in the entire story and it's predictable at that. I don't doubt the quality of Mahy's writing, but too little happens and it is over to fast to be a satisfying read for me. A case of a lauded novel of it's time not standing the test of time due to modern day reader's expectations and the changed nature of the YA genre? I personally believe The Changeover has fared better.

[AquaMoon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw a made-for-TV movie of this story when I was about 7 or 8, and it creeped me out beyond all rationality. Had me terrified of my bedroom mirror, for one thing! I refused to go near it at night, and was even apprehensive of it during the day... The memory of this movie, and how eerie and creepy it was, stayed with me for years. Decades, even. When I recently discovered it was a book, well, I just HAD to read it. I mean, I'm an adult now. There's no way something that freaked me out when I was so young would scare me in my mid-30s, right? Well... reading it made the images of the movie come rushing back: A little boy being chased through a deserted playground, the ghost in the mirror, the creepy old house and even creepier old lady... And I admit these memories may have shadowed my reading of the book, making it creepier than it really is. Or maybe not. Either way, a good suspenseful read. A bit dated, but nevertheless good!

p.s. On an unrelated note: Clowns are STILL creepy. They were creepy when I was 3. They were creepy when I was 13. And they're STILL creepy now!

p.s. So I guess some things that scared me as a kid still have spook potential now.

[Caren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This won the Carnegie Medal in 1982. It was a creepy little story, but not too scary. It would be a good Halloween read for upper elementary and perhaps early middle school, even though the protagonist is only eight years old. I was curious about the film version after seeing it mentioned by other reviewers, so I had to order it. The book was adapted for screen by the author and filmed in her native New Zealand. (The title was slightly altered to "The Haunting of Barney Palmer".)It was loyal to the book and quite well done (although I could only find it in VHS format).

[Katie Fitzgerald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Barney is the youngest of three, born after sisters Tabitha and Troy. His mother died after giving birth to him, so he is very worried about his stepmother, Claire, as she is expecting a baby soon and he fears losing her as well. When, on his way home from school, Barney encounters a ghostly boy in blue velvet who keeps talking about the death of someone named Barnaby and how lonely he will be now, he tries to keep it to himself. That night, however, he faints when he learns that his own Uncle Barnaby, a relative of his mother's has just died. When he and his family visit his mother's relatives, the Scholars, Barney's sister Tabitha does her best to find out more about what could be causing Barney to have these visions. Her curiosity leads the whole family down the very interesting path to the mysterious truth about the Scholars, and about Barney himself.

The chief pleasure of reading this book comes from the uncovering of family secrets amidst an interesting mix of characters. The supernatural elements perfectly feed this central plot of family revelations, but it is the complicated relationships between the characters, both living and dead, that drive the story and make it such a compelling read. The book is not necessarily scary, nor is it a traditional mystery that can be solved by following a series of clues, but it does have an air of spookiness about it that makes it ideal for kids to read around Halloween, even if the subject matter is rooted more in psychology than fantasy.

Margaret Mahy was truly a talented writer. I have previously admired her excellent rhyming picture books, which are among the few that consistently use rhyme well, but even the amazingly well-rhymed Bubble Trouble has nothing on this wonderful novel. I am not naturally drawn to fantasy, nor do I typically seek out stories about ghosts and hauntings, but I was immediately engrossed in this book and read it in one sitting. I enthusiastically recommend it, not just to those who love this genre, but to anyone who enjoys a well-plotted novel with a memorable cast of characters and a perfectly surprising twist ending.

This review also appears on my blog, Read-at-Home Mom.

[Pam Baddeley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book, published in 1982, won the Carnegie Medal and is a nice spooky tale for middle grade children, with a difference. It is quite short being a children's book from the era when such books were fairly short, but tells the tale of a quiet boy, Barney, who just wants to be normal but to whom extraordinary things begin to happen. It starts when he is coming home from school and is confronted on the way by what appears to be a lifesize paper model of a Victorian boy which then tells him Barnaby is dead and it is going to be very lonely. I did like the description of the figure swinging this way and that and then spinning round faster and faster until it vanishes in flakes of blue paper - not your average ghost!

The story takes a twist as Barney begins to realise that it is perhaps not a ghost at all but that he is being haunted by a living mysterious member of his family, a member who had uncanny powers and was in effect banished. This person now wants Barney for his own and is coming back, inflicting Barney with all kinds of 'hauntings' such as audible footsteps and visions of what is witnessed on the journey.

There is a nice spooky atmosphere, and the characters are also well realised, with even Barney's talkative sister, a would-be novelist, covering over as interesting rather than annoying. And there is a good twist at the end and a nice acknowledgement of the tensions within even happy families.

[Ishmael · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this on a bookshelf at home and read it on the two-hour train journey back to uni. I was attracted by the peculiar cover design, narrow spine, and the fact that it had WINNER OF THE CARNEGIE MEDAL printed on the back in orange letters.

The author, Margaret Mahy, paints a realistic portrait of family-life. She writes with a captivating style which is a joy to read. There's some lovely snippets of wisdom to take away too, such as:

"Even when you half-know things are true, hearing them said makes them true all over again."

This is quite a short book - a snapshot of an event. In the end, I would have liked to find out more about the characters. I realise that great authors leave you hungry for more, but this time, I felt like a diner at a swanky restaurant: The dish was certainly high-quality, but there wasn't enough to fill me up, and I left feeling unsatisfied.

I would recommend this book to slightly younger readers - after all, maybe I've just grown old and boring!

[Angel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was thoroughly charmed by Mahy's storytelling. She creates vivid, believable characters, while creating a compellingly magical world coloured with all the joy and painful challenges of being human and relating to others. I'm racking my brains trying to think of kids I know who'd enjoy this. This is exactly the kind of writing I was always thrilled to dig up in the library when I was small -- hell, I loved it now. Like all gifted storytellers, Mahy writes for anyone who likes a good tale.

This bit from Mahy's recent obit in the Guardian does a good job of summing up the mingling of magic and mundane in her work:
"Although funny, robust, forthright, matter of fact and never the least bit fey, she always thought that there was something else, other forces or dimensions which played an important part in our lives. They were there, whether we believed in them or not."

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 3 out of 5]

Barney is hearing voices and steps. What is going on? Is a ghost haunting him? And, if so, who is the ghost? And what is this he learns about family magic?

When I read about this story---ghosts, hauntings, spookiness---it did not appeal to me at all. But it really wasn't about ghosts or hauntings or spookiness. Instead, it was about having special qualities and one's and others' willingness or refusal to embrace these.

[Ness · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like others have mentioned, this is an interesting, but somewhat odd book.

The main character is Barney, a thoughtful and introverted young boy who loves his family. He especially loves his step-mother, Claire, who he has a wonderful relationship with. Claire is pregnant, and Barney has a fear that she might die giving birth (the same way his biological mother died). So when strange things start happening to him, he doesn't want Claire to know, being worried it might lead to him losing her in some way.

The book is a perfect example of a suspense novel, and the supernatural component is well-written to be eerie but does not overwhelm the story. Without giving away too much of the plot, Barney is being haunted by a ghost who informs him that someone named "Barnaby" is going to die. Much of the book is him trying to decipher what this means, with the help of his sister Tabitha. Tabitha believes that going through their family history is the key to solving the mystery, and it becomes clear that there may be a magician in the family. But are they out to harm Barney? Or is there another reason for the Haunting? The suspense builds up until the very end, and when the family secrets are finally revealed, it doesn't turn out to be what either of them expects...

I loved reading this book, both because it was a captivating supernatural thriller, and because Barney was very well-written as a young boy with irrational anxiety about his family's safety (like young kids often have). I'm sure I'll be re-reading this in the future.

[Sarah Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a story about an 8-year-old boy called Barney, who thought that he was being haunted as he could hear a dead great-uncle speaking to him. Instead, it turned out that the real issue wasn't about Barney being haunted, but that the dead great-uncle wasn't actually dead, he was a magician, and he thought that Barney was a magician too. He was kinda wrong though, as it turned out to be the eldest sister Troy who was a magician, and Great-Granny too!

[Celine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ik vond het best wel saai... Er gebeurde vrij weinig in, maar dat zou kunnen komen doordat er vooral 'tell' was en weinig 'show'. Ik vond het ook niet erg spannend, maar verder was het wel een oké verhaal.

[Hannah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh

[Clara · Rating 4 out of 5]

sweet. intended for a younger audience but mahy once again comes through with atmospheric writing and excellent family dynamics

[MargaretDH · Rating 4 out of 5]

Margaret Mahy is so great, and I wish I'd read this one as a child. As always, she gives an appropriate gravity and dignity to the feelings of her young characters, and is able to reflect back the feelings of growing up. (I love the scene when Barney stays home from school sick and worried, but can also enjoy the special feeling of wearing his bathrobe in the kitchen in the middle of the afternoon.) This is a little bit scary, but really about family, legacy, and what it means to find and be yourself within the expectations of others. Which is a lot for a short children's book to carry, while still be interesting and exciting!

If your young reader is interested in ghosts, or fascinated by the idea that the world is greater than we can see, or that something exists alongside the mundane, this is perfect.

[Sandra Turton · Rating 2 out of 5]

*2.5* stars

[Emi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un dels meus preferits y una autora que m'encantava. Aquest llibre en concret el vaig llegir vàries vegades i encara el conservo.

[bird · Rating 5 out of 5]

that's right

[Derelict Space Sheep · Rating 3 out of 5]

A surprising, decidedly non-formulaic play on genre expectations. The speculative element remains secondary to what Mahy does best—which is to depict relatable child characters (usually of the unheralded variety) surviving and even flourishing in unromanticised, often broken or ‘found’ family settings.

[Nader Nate · Rating 3 out of 5]

VERDICT: (6.8/10)

[Michael Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unexpected and interesting.

[K8 · Rating 4 out of 5]

On his way home from school eight year-old Barney discovers he is being haunted, and not much later he learns his great-uncle Barnaby (whom he was named after) has died. But he soon learns that Barnaby isn't the one haunting him, rather, the haunting is related to a secret about relationships, inheritances, and family.

Have I mentioned how fond I am of Margaret Mahy? The Haunting won her the Carnegie Medal in 1982. She's a wonderful writer - I love her sentences. Here are a few:

"When, suddenly, on an ordinary Wednesday, it seemed to Barney that the world tilted and ran downhill in all directions, he knew he was about to be haunted again."

"There were some elderly family friends, all unknown to the Palmers, and sitting in the biggest chair of all, Great-Grandmother Scholar, even more scribbled on and screwed up by time than Barney had remembered her. She was absolutely neat, so neat that she seemed like a doll brought out of a glass case in a museum and sat up especially for the occasion. But her eyes were sharp and unfriendly, and her wrinkles were untidy - even wild as if time had played a careless game of tic-tac-toe all over her."

"Tabitha found she could easily imagine Barney being whisked off the path, could see a horribly think but hairy arm coming out of the bushes and pulling him into the shadowy tunnels of the hedge. And then of course he would never be seen again. Tabitha shuddered, astonished to find how precious he was, how much she wanted to look after him. Up until then he had simply been a brother, part of the family furniture, around the house whether she wanted him or not."

[Serendipity Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is written from the point of view of Barney, who I guess is about 10 or 11 years old and feels that he is being haunted by his mysterious Great Uncle Cole, whom he has never met. He is frightened as any child would be and Mahy really manages to convey his fear with ease. I actually felt like a child whilst reading it and it took me back to the ghost stories of my childhood, such as The Haunting of Cassie Palmer by Vivien Alcock.
Barney confides in his sister, Tabitha, who is shocked by the changes occurring in Barney. She makes it her business to try and solve why this is happening to Barney by approaching her Great Uncles to see if they can help. The book takes a surprising turn which I really didn't see coming, even though I know it wouldn't be a straightforward ending.
Mahy is excellent at providing the reader with a real understanding of family life. Her writing is thoughtful and she shows the children of today as they really are. You could easily step into Barney's shoes and understand why he behaved the way he did. I loved this modern family and I found myself easily able to picture them in their home.
This may be a children's book, but I would definitely recommend adult's reading it. Such a thin book, yet packed full to the brim with suspense, mystery and fear.

[Holly · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was strange and not entirely in a good way. The writing was good and I would be interested in reading another Margaret Mahy book in the future. As far as plot goes, it was definitely lacking. We were only following one basic plot which I found boring and rather predictable. It all felt like the beginning of a potentially good book. But I think this is a perfect example of how older books are dismissed as boring and uneventful due to modern reading standards (this is more common in children's literature). Nowadays middlegrade and YA books are packed with action and tend to be very fast paced compared to what teens read 30-40 years ago.

[Cassidy Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book I read in a book club to me the guy on the cover looked like harry styles to me also I know who is really on the cover I don't want to spoil the book. So anyway about the book I read it while playing on my laptop because the book is moving and thrilling but I don't think it's much of a horror story because it's not that scary. I have given it four stars because I was expecting it to be a bit more scary.

[Tiffany · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked how creative the story was and how it could be suspenseful but not scary for any children reading. However, it was definitely predictable at times, and I thought it finished weirdly. I'm not sure why it continued so long after the final resolution; it was almost as if the author didn't want to be finished with the story and just kept going. All in all, I don't think it deserved 1 star, but I definitely don't think it deserved more than 2. It was a quick book to pass the time.

[Nikki Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well written. Every chapter had you wanting to know more and what would happen. Would only be suitable for year 6 and depending on their maturity level. Would be great for predictive writing and becoming the characters.

[Courtney Johnston]

#3 in a summer re-read of Mahy’s 1980s novels.

“The Haunting” (1982) opens with a classic Mahy opening line:

“When, suddenly, on an ordinary Wednesday, it seemed to Barney that the world tilted and ran downhill in all directions, he knew he was about to be haunted again.”

It’s also a classic Mahy set-up: a closely observed realist family dynamic with its own set of complexities lanced through by a supernatural occurrence that pulls forth family histories and secrets that need to be puzzled out, ultimately leading to safety and security as newly won insights pull a family back closer together.

The book has a lot of similarities to “Dangerous Spaces” (1991) - themes of grief and loss, of a child being tugged away from the security of family by magic and history. Adults are helpful and loving, but also slightly blind to the magic: it’s children and teenagers who have to come to their own rescue.

Eight year-old Barnaby lives with his father, step-mother and two older sisters. His mother Dove died giving birth to him — now his beloved step-mother Claire is pregnant, and Barney, who would normally turn to her with his concerns, can’t, for fear of stressing her. His father, who withdrew from his children in his grief, has slowly re-emerged and reconnected, but is not close enough to help Barney. That leaves his sisters, Troy (dark, stormy, silent, skinny) and Tabitha (plump, garrulous, a budding novelist), to help piece together the family mystery that is haunting him.

In Tabitha, you can’t help but feel Mahy has given herself a stand-in. Tabitha exploits every domestic event as fodder for her future novel, filling notebooks with colourful detail. As an observer, she is both inside the story as a character and outside, providing wry commentary…

“Tabitha, that careful observer and future novelist, went back into her bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed feeling troubled. She took a few notes without the usual feelings of pleasure and power, out of habit really, giving herself time to think. She found she was remembering the various ghost stories she had read, and for the first time it occurred to her that being haunted might not be simply exciting and interesting, but actually terrifying. She felt a new respect for Barney, who was trying to keep fear locked in his own head. It was a very brave thing to do, thought Tabitha, and immediately became impatient with him too, because he was doing nothing about it.”

It’s a terrific book, and not at all a period piece. My one quibble is that it is overly laden with similes: barely a paragraph goes by without one. OTOH as an actual young reader, I loved this kind of use of language — it showed me what words can do.

“The sitting room, with its blue carpet and flowery chairs and curtains, was full of people. Great-Uncles Alberic and Guy were there of course, tall, towering and toppling a little bit like elegant hollyhocks. There were some elderly family friends, all unknown to the Palmers, and sitting in the biggest chair of all, Great-Grandmother Scholar, even more scribbled on and screwed up by time than Barney had remembered her. She was absolutely neat, so neat that she seemed like a doll brought out of a glass case in a museum and sat up especially for the occasion. But her eyes were sharp and unfriendly, and her wrinkles untidy - even wild as if time had played a careless game of noughts and crosses all over her.”

[Ming · Rating 4 out of 5]

'And neither of you thought of mentioning this to me,' her father said rather angrily.

'Well,' said Troy, 'be your age, Dad! What would you have done? Would you really have looked around for someone else? Mrs Gaines was so convenient, just down the road and very reliable and she didn't charge very much. Besides a lot of the time you were so miserable yourself ... there's just no point in telling everything you know unless it's going to change something. You've just got to put up with what can't be helped. We all do. You did. I do. SO does Barney. The way things are is the way things are.'

It was her father's turn to stare at Troy in the alarmed fashion of someone whose secret has been revealed. 'You seem to know a lot,' he said uneasily. Troy did not laugh. Barney could never remember hearing her laugh, but she gave one of her rare smiles.

She held out her hand palm upwards.

'Cross the gypsy's palm with silver,' she said. 'I've had to live with you lot, day after day after day. I can't help knowing things.'

The writing is phenomenal, the sense of realism in everyday family dynamics coloured with the supernatural strangeness. The story moves through the usual movements of a story by Mahy: something extraordinary happens that disturbs the ordinariness of everyday life, 2/3 of the book is preoccupied with figuring out what this means, and then we go to the ending. This is fresh in my mind cos I've also just finished Mahy's Alchemy.

I didn't quite predict the twist at the end of The Haunting, which was in some sense refreshing -- usually it's the main character that's the chosen one, the powerful one. But Troy was one of Chekhov's guns on the wall.

One is, however, left with feeling that there isn't much meat, slightly anticlimatic when Cole comes and things are resolved by Troy. I wonder why? Was I expecting a final boss battle? Is that why it feels a touch underwhelming? Or perhaps it's because ... things got wrapped up a bit too nicely? Perhaps the family ugliness was too quickly resolved? (Great-Grandma awful and self-hating, Cole can be reintegrated, everything else -- just a big misunderstanding.)

How to rate this book? It's wonderful, but there's something missing. 4.25 stars.

[Ameya · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Palmers and Scholars
Barnaby or Barney Palmer is 8 years old and is facing “The Haunting” of this title. On my reread of this recipient of the Carnegie Medal in 1982, the language was dated (even for 1982?) but the story still remains fresh.

Barney’s sisters, Tabitha and Troy, and stepmother, Claire, are sympathetic to him. However, Barney can’t find a way out of his predicament when the haunting commences with the vision of a speaking ghost of a boy in blue velvet of his own age. What that ghost says makes Barney faint and become progressively more ill.

A visit to his maternal family members, the Scholars, confirms the identity of the blue in blue, and brings things to a head. When the haunting becomes more intense, and is accompanied by the other sounds and visions witnessed by Tabitha, Barney confides in his sister.

The Scholars, who comprise of Barney’s dead mother’s parents, uncles and grandmother, start to visit Barney’s family. Then Tabitha takes matters in her own hands and goes to visit her Grand-Uncle, Dr. Guy Scholar, to find out his views on what the visits and the haunting are all about. Though this answers some of the questions, the entire story is revealed with a twist at about the 75% mark. Slightly repetitious up to this point, the revelation causes the story to gather momentum, and there is no more peak in the plot towards the end.

The story has moderate cadences, so a younger reader of today might find it doesn’t contain many peaks or action. There is no real antagonist other than Grand Grandmother Scholar, who remains selfish and nasty till the end. Margaret Mahy’s writing is expert and allows the reader to understand the emotions and motivations of the two main protagonists, Barney and Tabitha. I found it a gentle rather than gripping read.