The Blood-And-Thunder Adventure on Hurricane Peak

by Margaret Mahy, Wendy Smith (Illustrator)

Relates the tangled events that lead the students of the Unexpected School on Hurricane Peak to foil the wicked industrialist Sir Quincey and his accomplices and to solve several mysteries.

Genres: Fantasy, Childrens, Fiction, Novels

Library Binding

First published September 1, 1989

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

[Janelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Utterly ridiculous

[William Leight · Rating 4 out of 5]

[Add a star if you are under the age of 12, subtract one if over the age of 18]

I loved all of Mahy's funny books as a kid, but they're a bit too slight to hold up for adult rereading, I think. The plot twists are a little too obvious, the characters a little too flat, the whole thing just a little too silly. This one moves fast and is still amusing enough to be readable, but if you don't have the extra motivation from childhood nostalgia it's probably not worth picking it up. (Unless you're a child yourself, in which case it's highly recommended.)

[Rebekah Higgins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to find the audio cassette version of this read by Richard Mitchley.

The story is wonderful but his narration makes it fantastic. I hope they do an audible version of this so I can get it on mp3 and the audio version is affordable for people.

All the people hawking STEM only education may not like this so much :)

[Kesta Fleming · Rating 4 out of 5]

Margaret Mahy always writes well. This is a humorous story, brimming with imagination, word-play and unlikely characters. The only bit that didn't quite work for me was the final paragraph.

[Sarah Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Story about some people who all had links to the Unexpected School on Hurricane Peak. There were several different storylines, which all came together quite nicely at the end. I hadn't guessed that the missing headmistress was the disabled man's adopted auntie! It was quite funny how the crooks mistook Heathcliff for Belladonna because they both had orange hair and sticky-out ears. Why did the eldest villain end up dressed up as a baby? And how on earth did they mistake him for an actual baby?

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

a very good book, perhaps the best. however, it does raise a few fascinating questions, such as: how close is too closely related to be romantically involved? is second cousins twice removed ok- after all, it's not illegal. does it enter weird territory when you become aware of the relation, perhaps to the point of having a shared, recognisable family ring? is the weirdness and the moral implications worse if you look very (very, very) similar, presumably because of your shared genetics? much to ponder.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the Unexpected School, you won't study science and maths. Your head prefect is a cat, and the head mistress has been missing for years. A hurricane comes around several times a day, so if you're going out, you will want your stone boots. Silliness abounds, words are mixed up and so are people. Clever and entertaining. A great read aloud.

[Jenni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Swedish title: Blod och Dunder äventyr

[Amit · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of my all time favorite kids books. too bad she didnt write the "continuing adventures ...."

[Jenni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read to Joe in the car and he liked it a lot too.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

CML