Time of Green Magic

From Costa Award-winner Hilary McKay comes The Time of Green Magic: a beautiful, spell-binding novel about family, magic, an old house and a mysterious visitor . . .Abi and her two step-brothers, Max and Louis, find that strange things happen when they are alone in their eerie, ivy-covered new house.Abi, reading alone, finds herself tumbling deep into books, while Louis summons a startling guest through his bedroom window. Even Max has started to see shapes in the shadows . . .Their busy parents see none of it – but Louis’ secret visitor is growing too alarming to keep secret, and he finds he cannot manage without Max and Abi’s help.Can they find out where the mysterious creature has come from – and how to get it back there?'An instant classic' New York Times'Wise and kind . . . full of characters you will give your whole heart to' Anna James'The emotions of real families have always been [McKay's forte], but in this evocative novel she makes something fantastical happen' Sunday Times

The emotions of real families have always been [McKay's] forte, but in this evocative novel she makes something fantastical happen, This is magic without whimsy, a story about secrets and the power of books, with enough edge-of-the-seat moments to keep you hugging a cushion., A wonderful, sensitive depiction of the highs and lows experienced when trying to blend two families., The real pleasure of McKay's fiction lies in her eye for the everyday. There is always drama in her books, but she is too confident a writer to feel the need to shatter any teacups – and unusually for a children's author, many of her tales have no obvious villain., Wise and kind and utterly heart-wrenching and full of characters you will give your whole heart to

Hilary McKay won the 2018 Costa Children's Book Award for The Skylarks' War, the Guardian Fiction Prize for The Exiles, and the Smarties and the Whitbread Award for The Exiles in Love and Saffy's Angel respectively. Straw Into God was Hilary's first book with Macmillan Children's Books and is a collection of clever fairytale retellings. A Time of Green Magic was critically acclaimed and The Swallows' Flight, a companion novel to The Skylarks' War will publish in summer 2021.

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