Sheryl McFarlane

I’m so sad to hear that Magaret Mahy is no longer with us.  The world has lost a wonderful woman and one of the great children’s writers of our time.  I don’t doubt for a minute that she had more stories in her, stories we’ll never get to hear.  Fortunately, she left more than a hundred books in her 76 years.  Some of her stories delighted younger readers,  while others were intended for older audiences.  

I met her many years ago in Calgary. She sat next to me at Kaleidoscope, an international children’s literature conference held every four years.  She had been invited as a keynote speaker and she was truly inspiring. I was a young author with only two books under my belt, but when she sat down at my table, she was far too interested in everyone there to talk about herself. She was thrilled to be in Canada and she glowed with enthusiasm for the people she had met and the landscapes she had seen.  Her curiosity about everything and everyone was childlike and refreshing.  She was one of the most engaged people I’ve met, and that feeling was confirmed a few days after the conference when we were travelled with our hosts (who were both on the organizing committee) for a short hike into the Rocky Mountains.

Margaret’s books are as current today as they were the day they were written.  These are are some of my favorites, and I hope you will pick one or two of them up for yourself, or for a young reader who will enjoy a brief visit to one of the many worlds Margaret Mahy created for us.