LoveReading4Kids Says
LoveReading4Kids Says
A new book from Hilary McKay is always a joy – and this one does not disappoint. A newly blended family move into an ivy covered, slightly eerie house that has room for them all. They work to find a way to make their new family grouping compatible. Abi struggles to get used to her two new brothers, Max and young Louis. She resents that she has to share her father Theo, and her Granny Grace’s letters from Jamaica.
The new family all spend time and energy making the house their own, but mysterious things happen as they settle in. Abi seems to be able to fall right into the books she reads until she actually experiences salt spray and the green flash of parrots in the room with her. Similarly, Louis summons a visitor, but as Louis’s visitor becomes more and more frightening, he has to work with Abi and Max to send his visitor back from where it had magically sprung up.
This is a totally engaging read, full of green magic, imagination and family dynamics that feel authentic and realistic. The theme of cooperation and support running through are uplifting, though not necessarily easily achieved. Highly recommended.
Tricia Adams
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About
The Time of Green Magic Synopsis
From acclaimed author and Costa winner Hilary McKay comes The Time of Green Magic: a beautiful, spell-binding novel about new families, a magical old house and a mysterious cat . . .
When Tom and Polly marry, blending their single parent families together, their children find it hard to relinquish their old lives. Max realizes his birth dad will never come home now, while Abi suddenly finds herself a middle child, expected to share far too much - especially with grubby little Louis. The family start over together, stretching their finances to the limit and renting an eerie, ivy-covered house, big enough for all of them.
But when the children are alone there, strange things start to happen. Worried, Louis summons comfort from outdoors, and a startling guest arrives - is it a cat, or an owl, or something else? Abi reads alone, tumbling deep into books. Max loses his best friend and falls in love.
Meanwhile, Louis' secret visitor is becoming much too real. And when Max and Abi too start to see the great spotted cat-thing that arrives in the night, it becomes a problem the three of them must find a way to solve - together. But where has the creature come from, and how will he get back?
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781529019261 |
| Publication date: |
5th September 2019 |
| Author: |
Hilary McKay |
| Publisher: |
Macmillan Children's Books an imprint of Pan Macmillan |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
224 pages |
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Press Reviews
Hilary McKay Press Reviews
Hilary McKay has a rare gift for novels about families and their interplay. -- LoveReading4Kids
Vivid, hilarious, and heartbreaking, Hilary McKay's radiant characters touch my heart like real people, friends and loved ones I know well. Possibly the finest writer of our time. -- Elizabeth Wein
wise and kind and utterly heart-wrenching and full of characters you will give your whole heart to -- Anna James
McKay is a superb writer -- Sally Morris - Daily Mail
McKay couples warmth and grace with wry humour like nobody else out there -- Katherine Rundell - The Guardian
Hilary McKay is one of the great writers of children's fiction -- Sarah Hughes - Independent
Picking up a book by Hilary McKay is like slipping on bed socks on a chilly night. She knows how to look after her readers by ensuring that her characters are interesting and loveable from the start . . . -- The Times on The Skylarks' War, selected as Children's Book of the Year
Author
About Hilary McKay
Hilary McKay won the Costa Children's Book Award for The Skylarks' War, the Guardian Fiction Prize for The Exiles, and the Smarties and the Whitbread Award for The Exiles in Love and Saffy's Angel respectively. Hilary McKay's Fairy Tales was her first book with Macmillan Children's Books and is a critically acclaimed collection of clever retellings.
You can read her character Rose Casson's blog by clicking here - and Rose's tweets on the right hand side of this page.
Q & A with Hilary McKay
What is your earliest childhood memory?
Watching steam trains with my grandfather. He died before I was two years
old, so that is a very early memory.
If you could be any animal, what would it be and why?
Well, who could turn down the gift of flight? Or travel without luggage? Or a
life spent following the sun? Without doubt, I would be a swallow. I realise this
means a lifetime of eating flies, but I think it would be worth it.
What is your dream holiday destination?
I would start at the Sangre de Cristo mountains in New Mexico and travel South
through Central America, along the coast to Peru, then down through Chile
across to the Falklands and on to Antarctica, which I would circumnavigate.
Then I would travel North to New Zealand where I would spend a long time
warming up and then across to Australia. I would spend quite a long time in
Sydney and go up into the Blue Mountains (I might go sapphire hunting there)
and then to the Great Barrier Reef (of course).
That would be far enough for me.
What is your morning routine?
Alas, I do not have a morning routine.
If you could have one special talent, what would it be?
Singing, undoubtedly. That would make me the happiest. But I have a friend
whose talent is languages and I envy that one very much.
Likes: Millions of things! Books, cats, honey, letters from readers (hint, hint), real music, apples, swimming in cold water, chocolate coated ginger biscuits, trees.
Dislikes: Putting things away, litter, loud TV, hot rooms, being told what to think.
3 words that best descibe me: Untidy, happy, hopeful!
A Secret that not many people know: I am a VERY slow reader!
More About Hilary McKay
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Macmillan Children’s Books is thrilled to publish The Time of Green Magic by Hilary McKay who won the Costa Children’s Book Award 2018 with her unique novel, The Skylarks’ War.
The Time of Green Magic is a return to contemporary fiction for McKay, and will hold huge appeal for fans of her Casson Family. This new novel is wonderfully memorable and touching and follows children Abi, Louis and Max, as their two single parents bring their families together, moving into an eerie ivy-covered house with room for all of them. But the newly blended family find that strange things happen when they are alone in their new home: When reading alone, Abi finds herself tumbling deep into books; Louis summons a startling guest through his bedroom window and even Max has started to see shapes in the shadows. As Louis’ visitor becomes too alarming to keep secret, he finds he cannot manage without Abi and Max’s help. Can they find out where this mysterious creature has come from and how to get it back there??
This is a magical and beautifully written story of dark winter nights, a secret visitor, books which become doorways into other worlds and a house full of green magic from one of the best children’s writers working today. A future classic which will be read by children for decades to come.
