Margaret Mahy (1936–2012)

The extremely clever Margaret Mahy has written some wonderful poetry here. It begs to be read aloud, but it'll take you some practice to really pull it off.

Weirdly, when I was reading it, I thought of that scene in Anne of Avonlea (the movie) where Anne performs Tennyson's "The Highwayman" at a fancy event. I then had a brief daydream in which I dramatically recited Bubble Trouble while wearing puffed sleeves before a crowd of children. I think it would totally work without the illustrations.

Um, I think this review is starting to say more about me than the book, so I'll wrap it up. Due to length, I'd say this is best for ages 4 and up.… (more)

For a children's book, this one was rather nice. I found the writing to be poetic at times, but at other times, it was a bit too descriptive for me. The story was not bad, but perhaps a bit flimsy. Yes, there are several themes: Laura's relationship with her mother and how she feels about the mother's new boyfriend, Laura's relationship with the witch-boy Sorry and his journey back to having feelings, and of course the freeing of Laura's brother Jacko of an evil demon. I guess the different story lines are well done, but particularly the main one is a bit simplistic. Overall, the book was ok, but I'm not going to look for anything else by this author. I suppose I've outgrown this type of book after all...… (more)

This novel examines two aspects of memory through the main characters, 19 year old Jonny and an elderly woman, Sophie, suffering from Alzheimer's Disease. Jonny has been haunted for the last five years by the experience of witnessing his elder sister's death. His life has been derailed into booze and getting into fights, and on the anniversary of Janine's death he goes looking for the other witness, Janine's best friend Bonny, wanting to check whether his memory is really accurate. However, he encounters Sophie instead and soon finds himself becoming her caregiver despite his better judgement, especially when it seems she is being swindled by someone who is posing as her landlord.

As with other Mahy fiction, the characters are well fleshed out. The portrayal of Alzheimer's is all too convincing. A touching relationship develops as Jonny finds someone who needs him and in caring for her he gradually moves away from obsession with his own troubles, ironically finding answers to those along the way.

The book would be a good way of explaining this form of dementia to its original age range audience, but I think they would probably find the 1980s teenage trappings - a tape-based Walkman that Jonny relies on to blot out his surroundings being chief among them - and the lack of today's mobile phone culture too dated, which is a pity. I also found the story dragged a bit in the middle before it built up steam for the ending chapters, and I'm not convinced by the mild results of Jonny's dramatic action.

As far as the authorial decision to make two of the character names Jonny and Bonny, perhaps this is meant to drive home the way he has projected so much of his own fantasies onto his sister's friend so that she is almost an aspect of himself, but that could be reading too much into it. But if not it is an odd naming choice. On balance, a 3-star read.… (more)