Science Fiction and Fantasy Association of New Zealand

Word Witch The Word Witch
by Margaret Mahy
Harper Collins

Supplied for review by Harper Collins New Zealand

Reviewed By: Simon Litten

Better known for her short stories and novels, Margaret Mahy writes the occasional piece of poetry. These pieces of poetry have been collected into one beautifully illustrated volume by Tessa Duder.

To my knowledge I hadn’t read any of Margaret Mahy’s poems before so I was keen to see what her output encompassed. I am very glad I did. This is a collection of mostly amusing, happy poems and snippets of poetic doggerel (I find it hard to accept a five line verse as a fully formed poem, but that’s just me). The illustrator, David Elliot, has done a brilliant job tying the pictures to the poems. In fact, without his illustrations this book would be much less fun to read than it is – and it was fun to read.

In her liner notes, the editor explains that this could be all the poems that Margaret Mahy has written or there could be more poems lurking out there as this was something the author hadn’t kept robust records on. All I can say is that if another volume comes out I shall be buying it.

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