The Good Fortunes Gang

Cousins Quartet #1

by Margaret Mahy

The first of four tales of family life and relationships in New Zealand. Other work by the author includes "Aliens in the Family", "The Boy with Two Shadows" and "17 Kings and 42 Elephants".

Genres: Childrens, Fiction

160 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

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

[Sarah Elizabeth]

Story about a group of kids who are moving from Australia to their father's birthplace in New Zealand. Pete is tested by his cousins who don't want to let him join their gang, even though he too was a Fortune.

[Elise]

This is more like a short story, and it's a fun little, enjoyable one. It moves along, has a neat little plot, and the characters are likable. Good, short, Sunday read.

[Sharon Buxton]

B. children's book, contemporary fiction, grade 3, New Zealand, series, Cousins Quartet, #1