HAUNTING, THE

Rating:
Summary: Someone Was Coming For Him . . .
Review: "Barnaby is dead! I'm going to be very lonely." When a ghost appears to young Barney and speaks these words he's terrified. Barney's always been a little different, but what can the eerie voice that haunts him want? It's up to Barney and his big sister, Tabitha to find out what's happening. Something, or someone is coming to fetch Barney--and its getting closer each day. Tabitha is about to discover that her ordinary family . . . is not so ordinary after all.

Mahy has a way of weaving supernatural elements into the ordinary everyday world and allowing the reader to experience both in a fascinating tapestry. The subtle, but powerful magic that takes over the story. The mysterious past of a long-lost relative become intriguing elements as the plot unwinds. But what gives this book its power is the element of family and the varied and often challenging relationships that exist.

Various family members act and interact with each other in different ways, with surprising undercurrents and support structures. It's interesting to see how these peices all fit together--Mahy doesn't present readers with a perfect family, but a family with its ordinary flaws . . . and one very extraordinary, tantalizing secret.

This book will probably appeal most to the sensitive reader who enjoys subtlety and emotional development vs. direct action and adventure. Children feeling out of place, whether in their family or in society, may identify strongly with this story and gain an inkling of their own identity. This might be for the child who is looking for something more sophisticated than Harry Potter, yet enjoys the aspect of fantasy and magic in a contemporary setting.

This book was my introduction to Margaret Mahy. The author has written a number of books that explore paranormal and supernatural elements. If you enjoy this book, please check out some of her other titles, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

^_^ Happy Reading!
--shanshad

Rating:
Summary: Someone Was Coming For Him . . .
Review: "Barnaby is dead! I'm going to be very lonely." When a ghost appears to young Barney and speaks these words he's terrified. Barney's always been a little different, but what can the eerie voice that haunts him want? It's up to Barney and his big sister, Tabitha to find out what's happening. Something, or someone is coming to fetch Barney--and its getting closer each day. Tabitha is about to discover that her ordinary family . . . is not so ordinary after all.

Mahy has a way of weaving supernatural elements into the ordinary everyday world and allowing the reader to experience both in a fascinating tapestry. The subtle, but powerful magic that takes over the story. The mysterious past of a long-lost relative become intriguing elements as the plot unwinds. But what gives this book its power is the element of family and the varied and often challenging relationships that exist.

Various family members act and interact with each other in different ways, with surprising undercurrents and support structures. It's interesting to see how these peices all fit together--Mahy doesn't present readers with a perfect family, but a family with its ordinary flaws . . . and one very extraordinary, tantalizing secret.

This book will probably appeal most to the sensitive reader who enjoys subtlety and emotional development vs. direct action and adventure. Children feeling out of place, whether in their family or in society, may identify strongly with this story and gain an inkling of their own identity. This might be for the child who is looking for something more sophisticated than Harry Potter, yet enjoys the aspect of fantasy and magic in a contemporary setting.

This book was my introduction to Margaret Mahy. The author has written a number of books that explore paranormal and supernatural elements. If you enjoy this book, please check out some of her other titles, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

^_^ Happy Reading!
--shanshad

Rating:
Summary: Whither wander you, spirit?
Review: Some people say that the leap taken by adult authors to writing books for children (Elmore Leonard, Michael Chabon, and Salman Rushdie are all good examples of this) is a harsh and difficult one. I say a far more difficult leap is that from young adult author to children's. Oh it may not sound difficult at first. But where the adult-to-child author can fudge the ages of their readers, the young-adult-to-child author must be aware at all times of the specific mindset of their audience. This may result in beautiful writing or watered down material that's too old for the intended audience. Margaret Mahy is a premiere young adult author. If you've any sense, you'll rush out and buy her "Catalogue of the Universe" at once without blinking. What's most remarkable about Mahy though is her penchant for occasionally drifting into children's works as well. These might range from the beautiful picture book, "Ultra-Violet Catastrophe" (a favorite of mine) to the slightly older chapter book, "The Haunting". Like all her tales, "The Haunting" focuses on relationships between family members and the bond that ties us to our relatives. It has the familiar creepy quality of her other works, but is age appropriate and (to be frank) thrilling.

Barney has a problem. He knows he's about to be haunted by a ghost and there's nothing he can do about it. This isn't anything new for Barney, of course. Years ago he was haunted by three different ghosts and they were all quite friendly. Now, however, there's a blond boy in blue crushed velvet following him around and saying, "Barnaby's dead! I'm going to be very lonely". Since Barney's full name is Barnaby, he's not exactly pleased with this message. Soon other strange things start to happen to the boy and his instincts tell him he's helpless in the face of them. Fortunately, he has an incredibly loving family to rely on instead. There's Clair, his beloved stepmother who is pregnant with her first child. And there's his sister Tabitha, plump and happy and ready to talk a mile a minute. There's Barney's father and his mysterious sister Troy who never says much but always seems to be most unhappy. With the help of his family members, as well as an assortment of great-uncles, grandparents, and one wicked old great-grandmother, Barney slowly learns to unravel the mystery of what exactly is haunting him.

More than any other children's author I've read, Margaret Mahy makes me want to quote long phrases of her prose to passing strangers on the street. Just listen to some of the sentences in this book. About Barney's evil great-grandma Scolar: "I don't mind her being wrinkled.... It's just that all her wrinkles are so angry. She's like a wall with furious swear words scribbled all over it". Or this section that describes the neatness of Troy's room: "Troy's homework was set out on her desk as immaculately as if she had been going to do a heart operation on it. Her tiny writing ran across sheets of paper as if a regiment of minute insects with inky feet had marched with enormous precision over the pages". Mahy's a master at the fabulous descriptive passage. Her characters too are imbued with a kind of life and verve you only hope you could find in a good children's book. Better still, they really like one another. I mean, they're incredibly fond of one another's thoughts and feelings. Most wonderful of all is Barney's pure unadulterated love for his stepmother. He adores Clair with all his heart and constantly fears that she'll die in childbirth just as his mother did. Most of the tension that comes from this book is based on characters keeping secrets from other characters because they don't want to hurt them. Fortunately, everything gets patched up beautifully by the end.

If you'd like a book for your kid that's slightly more advanced than the average "Super Diaper Baby" tale, try "The Haunting" out on them. Not only is it written with clarity and precision but it's a great story about ghosts, magicians, and the dangers of stifling what you really are inside. If you want an open-minded book that believes that people should be themselves, if in moderation, "The Haunting" is for you. Another Margaret Mahy creation that'll blow you away.


Rating:
Summary: The Weird and Mysterious Family.
Review: The title of the book is "The Haunting." Margaret Mahy is the author and illistrater of the book. If I had mto give a shot summary of the book, this is what it would be:There is a family named the Palmer family .There is a boy named Barnaby who thinks he is dead because there is a voice or ghost that tells him ,but6 it really is his great great uncle who died and he also has the same name.His family also has many powers. that is why I say they are weird or cool.

Rating:
Summary: Get children this book.
Review: This book is truly terrific. I love most of Margaret Mahy's books dearly, including this one, and this is the only one I've read that is clearly "Children's" and not "YA". Of wonderful magical Children's books such as the Green Knowe series, Grimbold's Other World, E. Nesbit's works, and The Ordinary Princess, this is one of the few set in a fairly recent time and ordinary (seemingly) family. It is not diminished as great kids' fantasy by a setting far less dated and remote than, say, that of the Dark is Rising series, or Alan Garner's books. After reading many of these works and growing up a bit, a young person could go on to read Aliens in the Family, The Changeover, and The Tricksters, these three in my opinion the best of her YA fantasies. Get your favorite youngun started now with this book or read it and get hooked yourself on Margaret Mahy!

Rating:
Summary: The Weird and Mysterious Family.
Review: This book should never be out of print