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My Mysterious World by Margaret Mahy <-»|~:*-»-
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BOSTON PUBLIC UBRARY
Copley Square
MY MYSTERIOUS WORLD h
Mahy
Margaret
photographs by
David Alexander
Ww
^ ^H^ Richard C.
Owen
Katonah,
Publishers, Inc.
New York
.
Meet
the Author
.
titles
A Bookworm Who Hatched
Yerna Aardema
Karla Kuskin
Once Upon a Time
Eve Bunting
George
I'nder My Nose
Lois Ehlert
Jean Fritz
Hau Kola
Ruth Heller
Howe
Mahy
Hello Friend
The Writing
Bug
Storyteller s Story
Patricia Polacco
Firetalking
Cynthia Rylant
Best Wishes
Jane Yolen
.4
and Words
A Wordful Child
My Mysterious World
A
Rafe Martin
Fine Lines
Lee Bennett Hopkins
Thoughts, Pictures,
Lyon
Ella
Margaret
Surprising Myself
Paul Goble
James
.
Letter from Phoenix
Farm
Playing with Words
Text copyright
©
1995 by Margaret
Photographs copyright
©
Mahy
1995 by David Alexander
All rights reserved.
No
part of this publication
may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission
Owen
Richard C.
in writing
from the publisher.
Publishers, Inc.
P.O. Box 585
Katonah.
New
York 10536
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mahy Margaret .
My
mysterious world
Alexander
—
(Meet p. cm. ISBN 1-878450-58-1 Mahy Margaret 1
New Zealand — 20th 3 II
.
Title
PR9639 823
.
.
Ill 3.
.
Series
M24Z47
Mahy
;
photographs by David
the author)
literature
century
— Juvenile
Authorship
.
by Margaret
— Biography — Juvenile — Biography — Juvenile
.
.
/
:
literature
Meet
.
I
the author
.
(
Alexander
Katonah
,
,
David
N V .
2
.
.
Authors
literature
.
,
.
1956-
)
1995
— dc20
[B]
95-1291
CIP
Editor. Art,
and Production Director Janice Roland
Editorial/Production Assistant
Peter Ackennan
Color separations by Leo P. Callahan
Inc.,
Printed in the United States of America
98765432
Binghamton.
NY
To Alice
and Poppy
v.y
&&&&-.
•
'
I
live in
Governor's Bay, Lyttelton Harbour,
South Island, in the shell of
New Zealand, an old volcano.
Ma
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\ Millions of years ago this ring of
held
fire
,
hills
instead of water.
Millions of years ago this harbor was a volcano. I
have lived here
along with
my
for over twenty-five years,
daughters,
as well as cats, dogs,
Penny and
Bridget,
guinea pigs, rabbits,
and even ponies. -4
iiimi
|
,
« 4
4
jSM
•4
s'M
.
Every morning while
it is still
I
scramble out of bed
dark.
I sit
for a
moment,
blinking and thinking, trying to just
where
and of
Then first
all I
I
left off
the things
start
the day before, I
have
turning things
to
do
this day.
on...
the light and then the word processor.
My bedroom While
my
remember
I
work
is
at
also
my
working
place.
the word processor,
black dog, Cello, sleeps on his rug.
Cat sleeps on the fax machine,
where long messages about or on the
When
word processor where
at last
I
come
it is
sighing through,
always warm.
look up at the windows over
and see the sky growing I
stories
make my bed and
light,
get dressed.
my
head
Cello and
I
go out in the garden.
My daughter Penny lives and her
Then As I
I
little
off
walk
talk to
we
next door to me,
dog Flynn joins go,
down
us.
to the sea.
in the crater of the old
myself about the
stories 8
volcano I
am working
on.
After
Then
my walk I
sit
I
have
my
back down
at
breakfast.
the word processor
and go over the previous day's work. I
don't start
new work
until later in the day.
I
used
Then
to write
everything
down
would correct what
I
I
in exercise
books.
had written
over and over again, until the
Then
pages were too messy to read.
would type the
I
correct
it
and type
again,
It
use
saves
mess up the page once more,
out for the second time.
it
Sometimes
Now I
story out,
would type
I
a
me
word
stories six or
processor.
a lot of time.
But some of the mysteriousness can go out of
a story if
I'm not careful.
10
seven times.
So k**l
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11
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'-*>'«*
s°*s.'t/e
NEW ZEALAND
North Island
o
South Island
<£
^
Stewart Island
I
was born on the 21st of March
in a
of
town
called
Whakatane,
in 1936,
in the
North Island
New Zealand. 12
m
Whakatane
is
a
Maori name.
The Maoris are Polynesian people. They were living in this country, which they called Aotearoa, hundreds of years before the Europeans arrived in their sailing ships
My grandparents in
and renamed
left
England
Whakatane, where many of 13
in
my
it
New Zealand.
1909 and settled family live to this day.
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From I
the
hills
of Whakatane,
used to see the plume of steam
rising
from White Island,
a living volcano. Hills, sea,
and volcanoes
were part of
my
first
view of the world. Before I
I
could write,
made up rhymes
and said them aloud to myself.
J
When I
I
was seven
began writing
down, and a writer
^11 E! 7*
ts
•A*
14
I
stories
have been
ever since.
Now
I
live in the
Hills, sea, I
South Island of
and volcanoes are
still
share a vegetable garden with
New Zealand.
a part of
my
15
view.
daughter Penny,
her husband Robinson, and their two Alice and Poppy.
my
little girls
We
have two big flower gardens
with a long
strip of
lawn
running between them.
We
can run on the lawn or throw
Frisbees for the dogs to chase.
We
also
have
a
corner
full
of trees and bushes. Alice and call
16
it
"the forest."
I
My younger daughter Bridget lives in Auckland, the biggest city in
New Zealand. All five of us
own
a long,
bare peninsula that sticks
out into the harbor.
We
are planting our
peninsula with trees.
17
I
work hard
As well I
have
at
being
a writer.
as writing stories,
lots
and
lots
of letters to answer,
many of them from school children. More and more I find letters from children in the I
United States
try to
answer
all
in
my
letter box.
the letters, and
draw pictures on them. 18
I
usually
I
can draw
and
in
a cat, a crocodile, a lion,
some
letters
I
draw
and
a picture of
P^
19
a gorilla,
my
dog.
My writing time but I
I
just
have
precious,
is
to read, too.
love reading a mixture of things
like mysteries, histories,
poems.
Many
schools in
and
New
Zealand have book weeks,
and invite authors classes.
When
I
to talk to
go
to school,
I
often dress up for fun and put on a
colored wig to disguise myself.
As well I
as talking
about writing,
draw pictures and
sometimes
my own,
tell stories,
sometimes
other people's. 20
I
write books for
many
ages.
Some of them are books for little children who are not going to school yet. I write books for children who are able to read themselves, and for young adults as well.
Most of the
Once,
in a
ideas
I
get
swimming
called The Great White It
was about
to frighten
a
come from
pool,
I
had an idea
for a story
Man-Eating Shark.
boy who dressed up
people away from
so that he could have
things around me.
it all
a
as a shark
swimming
to himself.
21
place
r^TTT
I
used
to
work
in a library.
Sometimes children would play until
it
Then I
It is
I
to close.
they would want to choose a book.
wrote
but
was time
in the library
a story
wrote
called
it
,4
about
about
this,
a crocodile
not a child.
Crocodile in the Library. 22
^X
f
I
„*;
"<*•§ ,-* A.
I
A Aiftj'JlU"*'" \
have written several stories
about that crocodile.
My crocodile
stories are partly true.
They come from used
to tell
the
memory
me.
23
of stories
my
father
/>
The
peninsula where
for a
book
we
plant trees
is
the setting
called Underrunners, a story for older children.
"Underrunners"
is
the
New Zealand name
for the strange tunnels that
sometimes form
in dry, treeless land.
24
watch the world closely
I
case
in
shows
it
me
a possible story.
Once, on over the I
saw
a car ride hills,
a sign
shop
in a butcher's
that said "Pot-boiling owls.
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jot
It
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It
"3
should have said "Pot-boiling Fowls,"
but the "F" had dropped
The
off.
idea of a shop that sold pot boiling owls
suggested
a story,
but
I
26
have not written
it
yet.
I
have
a
wonderful
I
have
a
family
I
life
love,
and
I
live in a strange
and beautiful place.
11
I
like
my
outside
the sea. and the
life
with the garden, the pets,
hills.
>
I
like
my
inside
life
with the bookshelves and the screen
of the word processor, where stories
mysterious ghosts.
29
come and go
like
One I
of
enjoy
It is
the
my its
favorite
words
is
"mysterious."
whispery sound.
word
that
most
truly describes
the world around me: hills, skv, sea,
and volcanoes. 30
Earthquakes,
too, are part of
but that's another
story.
31
my
world,
Other Books by Margaret
Mahy
17 Kings and 42 Elephants; Baby's Breakfast; The Dragon of an Ordinary Family; Fan tail. Fan tail; The Crocodile's Christmas Jandals; The Bubbling Crocodile; Shopping with a Crocodile; A Crocodile in the Garden; A Lion in the Meadow; The Rattlebang Picnic; The Seven Chinese Brothers.
About
the Photographer
David Alexander
He was
born
in
is
a photojournalist.
London, the 9th of
February, 1956. His parents emigrated to
New Zealand when
he was
David met Margaret Mahy
when he
mid-teens. She rescued him
made
a sail for his
stuck
in
the
mud
five.
in his
canoe and ended up
at
Governor's Bav.
Rachel Alexander
Acknowledgments Photographs on pages
and 23 appear courtesy of Margaret Mahy.
13, 14,
Original black and white line art on pages 19, 23, and 26 by Margaret Illustration
by Deirdre Gardiner on page 22 from A Crocodile
Mahy.
in the Library,
by
New Ministry of Education, New
Margaret Mahy, Ready to Read, Learning Media Ltd., Wellington, Zealand,
is
reproduced by permission of the
Zealand. Illustration on page 21 from The Great White Man-Eating Shark by
Margaret Mahy, illustrated by Jonathan Allen. Copyright Margaret Mahy; Copyright
©
by permission of Dial Books
USA
Inc.
©
1991 by
1991 by Jonathan Allen for illustrations.
for
Young Readers,
a division
Photograph on page 32 by Rachel Alexander.
Janice Boland.
32
Used
of Penguin Books
Map
illustration
by
BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY I
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