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The Tale of a Tail
A story about a dog with a magical tail by the celebrated and award-winning Margaret Mahy, with illustrations by Tony Ross.
160 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2014
3 people are currently reading
30 people want to read
About the author
Margaret Mahy
403 books291 followersMargaret 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...
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...
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 4, 2026
Questo libro è molto bello e divertente e insegna a vedere il lato interessante della normalità. ❤️
May 31, 2015
Tom is very interested when someone new moves into his street. He soon meets Mr Mirabilis and his friendly dog. On walks with the dog, strange things begin to happen. When Tom realises it is Najki making the things happen, he also clicks that it is his own wishes that are happening. Mr Mirabilis tells Tom to be careful what he wishes for. When Tom’s mum wishes to be outside in the trees with the sparrows instead of doing housework inside – she doesn’t know Najki is under the window and she is suddenly at the top of the tree, with a storm on its way!
Another story from our wonderful Margaret Mahy. Full of magic and surprises.
Another story from our wonderful Margaret Mahy. Full of magic and surprises.
April 21, 2018
Normally I wouldn't pick up a Step-6 book for Miss 3 on the assumption that it would be far too long but I think it's arbitary sometimes how the librarians rank them and it was probably more of a Step-5 with some black and white pictures. I simplified some of the text as I read but Miss 3 listened avidly and seemed to really enjoy this tale of a little dog with his magical wagger. She loved the ending as well :)
May 6, 2014
Margaret Mahy was one of New Zealand’s most beloved writers, the author of forty novels, over one hundred picture books, and a twice-winner of the Carnegie Medal. She passed away in 2012, and I’ll admit that I got a little tearful when I heard that there was still one last story of hers to be published posthumously.
As a final coda to Mahy’s prolific writing career, Tale of a Tail is a funny, magical little story about a boy called Tom who lives with his mother on Prodigy Street. Everything is ordinary enough until another Tom moves into the house at the end of the road. Tomasz Mirabilis is a strange-looking man with an even more extraordinary dog called Najki. Whenever Tom offers to take Najki out for a walk he finds that he has to be careful not to make any careless wishes, for with a wag of his tale, Najki has the... Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
As a final coda to Mahy’s prolific writing career, Tale of a Tail is a funny, magical little story about a boy called Tom who lives with his mother on Prodigy Street. Everything is ordinary enough until another Tom moves into the house at the end of the road. Tomasz Mirabilis is a strange-looking man with an even more extraordinary dog called Najki. Whenever Tom offers to take Najki out for a walk he finds that he has to be careful not to make any careless wishes, for with a wag of his tale, Najki has the... Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
April 16, 2014
A humorous , mostly playful and light-hearted story of a boy who befriends a new neighbour's dog and his discovery of the dog's magical powers.
It's based on a real life dog belonging to a Polish businessman who commissioned Margaret to write about him
http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/...
.......and of course embellished wonderfully.
Part way through the story starts to deliver the message , " be careful what you wish for" and the delight one can experience from the ordinary things in life, the latter a little metaphysical for primary age children, but it covers just a few pages at the end.
There is a satisfactory sadness and happiness as the story winds up.
4.5
It's based on a real life dog belonging to a Polish businessman who commissioned Margaret to write about him
http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/...
.......and of course embellished wonderfully.
Part way through the story starts to deliver the message , " be careful what you wish for" and the delight one can experience from the ordinary things in life, the latter a little metaphysical for primary age children, but it covers just a few pages at the end.
There is a satisfactory sadness and happiness as the story winds up.
4.5
June 12, 2014
When Tom and his mum move to Prodigy Street Tom is disappointed at just how ordinary everything is until three days later Tomasz moves in with his dog, Najki. When Tom takes Najki for a walk he realises that he just might need to be careful what he wishes for around the dog.
Maybe Prodigy Street isn't so ordinary after all?
I really enjoyed this book as it was quick paced, humours and well written. Interestingly enough, various chapters are written from the point of view of Najki.
Fans of Roald Dahl will love this book.
Maybe Prodigy Street isn't so ordinary after all?
I really enjoyed this book as it was quick paced, humours and well written. Interestingly enough, various chapters are written from the point of view of Najki.
Fans of Roald Dahl will love this book.
December 22, 2014
Be careful what you wish for! So cute - both the text and the pictures.
April 26, 2015
Cute easy to read story. Lived the ending. Great read aloud for a class of 6-8 years olds (year3-4)
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews