Enchantment for sharing

Children’s writer Margaret Mahy, recipient of the Carnegie Medal for Children’s Literature, the Hans Christian Andersen Medal and a host of other awards, says the shared experience of a parent reading to a child is precious. Her new young adult novel, The Magician of Hoad, was released last month after a writing process that took two decades. It is a mythical yarn about an innocent farm boy who can read minds, leading him to advise the king of a war-torn land. She has just read the first published copy. “I knew parts of it very well, of course, but it almost felt like I was reading someone else’s book for the first time. That’s quite a unique experience for a writer. Once your book is printed, it takes on a different identity. But after all these years, I still enjoy seeing my name on the cover. I study it carefully to remind myself that I was the one who wrote the book.” Mahy is a member of the Order of New Zealand. She lives on Banks Peninsula.