It seems I haven’t written a Puff Piece about my favorite picture-book writer, Margaret Mahy. I recently read a collection of her not-picture-book stories called The Chewing-Gum Rescue and other stories, and the quality was mixed. The title story was absolutely wonderful, and there were a handful of other magnificent stories in there as well, but there were a few duds. Well, comparative duds. Still pretty good, actually. And I haven’t read any of the young-adult or juvenile novels that I understand are what made her reputation. I read her picture books, aloud, to my Perfect Non-Reader, and I hope to read them to the Youngest Member.
My favorite, and I’ve mentioned this before, is 17 Kings and 42 Elephants. My Best Reader prefers The Boy Who Was Followed Home, which is also a wonderful book. I’d probably put The Horrendous Hullabaloo into a Top Three for recommending to people, but there are something like fifty books, of which I’ve only seen maybe a dozen. The Three-legged Cat is wonderful, as is A Summery Saturday Morning, and The Rattlebang Picnic is terrific, as is Simply Delicious!, and I could go on.
Gentle Readers who want a taste can read the text of her newest (as far as I know) book, Down the Back of the Chair on-line. Read it aloud, aloud, aloud. My Perfect Non-Reader read the title story of the Chewing-Gum Rescue to herself silently, and didn’t much care for it, but when it was read aloud, aloud, aloud, she loved it, as did Your Humble Blogger.
Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.