The Pirate Uncle

by Margaret Mahy

Well-behaved Nicholas and Caroline try to reform their pirate uncle when they spend a holiday at his New Zealand beach home

128 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Margaret Mahy was a well-known New Zealand author of children's and young adult books. While the plots of many of her books have strong supernatural elements, her writing concentrates on the themes of human relationships and growing up.

Her books The Haunting and The Changeover: A Supernatural Romance both received the Carnegie Medal of the British Library Association. There have 100 children's books, 40 novels, and 20 collections of her stories published. Among her children's books, A Lion in the Meadow and The Seven Chinese Brothers and The Man Whose Mother was a Pirate are considered national classics. Her novels have been translated into German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Italian, Japanese, Catalan and Afrikaans. In addition, some stories have been translated into Russian, Chinese and Icelandic.

For her contributions to children's literature she was made a member of the Order of New Zealand. The Margaret Mahy Medal Award was established by the New Zealand Children's Book Foundation in 1991 to provide recognition of excellence in children's literature, publishing and literacy in New Zealand. In 2006 she was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Award (known as the Little Nobel Prize) in recognition of a "lasting contribution to children's literature".

Margaret Mahy died on 23 July 2012.

On 29 April 2013, New Zealand’s top honour for children’s books was renamed the New Zealand Post Margaret Mahy Book of the Year award.

For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret...

Reviews

[Inoli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rounded up just a bit.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up off the library shelf, knowing nothing of the story, just intrigued by the title. I started with a little trepidation, since I noticed the copyright date and thought the story may be a little dated. Only a few pages into it, I realized it is quite timeless. I eased into a comfortable steady pace and fell in love with the characters. The pirate uncle is a great uncle, who just wants to show the children a great time. My favorite part was when he had the children go on a scavenger hunt to find lunch and, on the way, see the interesting things located around the house.
I recommend this book to all ages!

[Amber the Human · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't remember what originally made me start reading Mahy's books. Maybe she was mentioned by an author I liked in a book of theirs? Regardless, she's a fun writer, and it's nice to read books from someone living on the other side of the world. I think that's part of what makes this book, with it's less -than overwhelming plot line fun - the kid's lives are so unlike how I grew up. Beaches and parents just dropping their kids off with some unknown relative ... random parties ... and a sheep. Pretty fun.

[Hal Wilkes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I must have bought these tapes for you at a library book sale, but I don't remember when. I found it on our bookshelves at the beginning of the Easter school holidays, which was very fortituous as you listened to it about four times during the rest of the holidays, and have kept on listening to it ever since. Right now you have a wheezy cold and are tucked up on the sofa listening to it again.

[Zia]

Very fun story about 2 children whose parents go off on a trip and can only send their children to be with their uncle. They children do not know the uncle, and the mother has always alluded to him as a wild pirate. So, as they travel to New Zealand to spend the summer with him, the children wonder about his pirate life. It isn't clear until right at the very end if he really is a pirate or not.

[Paula · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have perviously only read her childrens picture books but I will read this chapter book to my 5 year old. Her writing flows and lends itself to be read out loud.