When Mr Terrapin engages a babysitter from the Mother Goose Babysittmg service, he doesn't count on getting a retired pirate or a house party for all the pirates in town. When the Likelys - a most unlikely family - kidnap a famous millionaire, their lives and their home are quite transformed. Try not to become disappointed if someone doesnt like a story youve written. It is just as much an office as a bedroom, and during the day, my bed is rather like an extension of my desk. which is a room I have worked in for years and years. It changes you for ever, but you are changing for ever anyway. Quotations by Margaret Mahy, New Zealander Author, Born March 21, 1936. When Mr Murgatroyd decides to rent out the rooms in his house, he doesn't count on getting a one-legged lady who loves pot plants, a sailor and his mermaid wife, a woman with 20 children or a bear who plays the flute. The Catalogue of the Universe, p.175, Simon and Schuster.

With Jon Gadaby, Tony Wahren, Wickham Pack and Mary Spencer. When a rascally band of robbers kidnap Miss Laburnum, the town's beautiful librarian, they get more than they bargained for-raging measles and a taste for books, just for starters. With David Copeland, Russell Smith, Debbie Davids, David Telford, Mary Spencer and Bob Mansbridge. There was once a very cross woman who made life difficult for anyone who didn't do what she thought was the right thing - including her husband, a washing machine, a band of gypsies and a baron. With Jon Gadsby, Debbie Davide, Russell Smith, Wickham Pack and Bob Mansbridge.

When Penny and Bridget are given an old railway engine by their rich uncle not everyone is as pleased as they are - not their relatives, not Mr Heratick the wet weather-ware shopkeeper, and certainly not the Hairy Brigands from the rainy hills. The Railway Engine and the Hairy Brigands () Margaret Mahy introduces six of her best-known stories.

Rooms for rent by Margaret Mahy