Scan barcode
A review by dmtcer
The Time of Green Magic by Hilary McKay
4.0
This is a book I would have loved as a child. Abi and her father (Theo) and grandmother (Granny Grace) are living a quiet life until THEO meets Polly and they decide to marry. Granny Grace leaves to go home, and Abi is forced into ready-made family life with her new family, including two step-brothers. Soon the landlord decides to sell their apartment, forcing a house hunt. One day they stumble upon an old tumbledown house covered with green ivy. Abi falls in love with it, and after much juggling of finances, the family ends up living in the ivy covered house.
Strange things begin happening whenever Abi finds herself absorbed in a book - a parrot emerges, a raft in the middle of a vast sea, bison come from a paint book, and Abi knows some how the house is filled with green magic. Little Louis conjures an imaginary friend - a cross between a tame cat and a wild beast. For a while he thinks the cat, Iffen, is his alone and no one can see him, until Abi catches him unaware.
Life in the ivy covered house is not tranquil. The children bicker and vie for attention of their respective parent, until Polly has to go away for time for her job, leaving Theo in charge. Tensions escalate, and even easy going Theo has a difficult time with it. This is the story of a family made up of all kinds of personalities and what it means to be accepted as you are for who you are always. This is a beautiful tale which centers around books and the magical worlds they can create.
Strange things begin happening whenever Abi finds herself absorbed in a book - a parrot emerges, a raft in the middle of a vast sea, bison come from a paint book, and Abi knows some how the house is filled with green magic. Little Louis conjures an imaginary friend - a cross between a tame cat and a wild beast. For a while he thinks the cat, Iffen, is his alone and no one can see him, until Abi catches him unaware.
Life in the ivy covered house is not tranquil. The children bicker and vie for attention of their respective parent, until Polly has to go away for time for her job, leaving Theo in charge. Tensions escalate, and even easy going Theo has a difficult time with it. This is the story of a family made up of all kinds of personalities and what it means to be accepted as you are for who you are always. This is a beautiful tale which centers around books and the magical worlds they can create.