The Seven Magpies

by Monica Hughes

Young adult novel set just after Britain declared war on Germany. Maureen Frazer's father has been sent to the front, her mother is helping with the war effort, and Maureen is shipped off to the Logan Academy for Young Ladies, a remote but safe boarding school in Scotland. There she finds that the girls have a secret society, called the Seven Magpies. When Maureen herself falls under the spell of a strange standing stone, she begins to understand what's making her schoolmates seem so strange and then she discovers what the real danger is. A magical story of what may happen when teenagers tamper with the ancient power of the Celts.

Genres: Fiction, Canada, Young Adult, Boarding School, Historical Fiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Monica Hughes was a very popular writer for young people, and has won numerous prizes. Her books have been published in the United States, Poland, Spain, Japan, France, Scandinavia, England, and Germany. She has twice received the Canada Council Prize for Children's Literature, and was runner-up for the Guardian Award.

She is the author of Keeper of the Isis Light, an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults, which also received a Certificate of Honor from the International Board on Books for Young People; Hunter in the Dark, also an ALA Best Book for Young Adults; and Sandwriter, among many other titles.

Reviews

[Liralen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another archive.org find (which brought my to-read list down under 700 books! At last!). The Seven Magpies finds a girl sent from St. Andrews to the west of Scotland during WWII: her father's away at war, and her mother is busy with war efforts, and the west seems safer than the east anyway. Never mind that Maureen doesn't want to go to boarding school; never mind that her new form-mates aren't happy to have a newcomer in their tight-knit midst.

It's quite a mild story, all told. One of the less draconian schools I've read about from the era, which sort of makes me wonder whether Scottish boarding schools were just kinder places to be than their English counterparts...but that's probably my inner Scot speaking. (I shouldn't get too smug, considering that for all intents and purposes I'm as much English as Scottish...) There really isn't any drama with teachers. There's some limited drama with Maureen's form-mates/roommates, but Maureen is mature enough to not take it too much to heart and to recognise that they're not all that important in the grand scheme of things.

I would have liked a bit more character development, or at the very least more distinguishing of personalities of the various dorm-mates. They're also all very willing to forgive and forget at the end of the book! Still, nice to find this one at last.

[Anna Hepworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read a lot of Hughes' works - I even own 13 of them - and I think of her as a SF writer. Thus I was a little surprised when this book turned out to be a historical one, set at the beginning of World War II, in a Scots boarding school. Some nice, subtle mysticism, a small mystery, a coterie of nasty school-girls persecuting the new girl, and everything turns out fine. Nothing earth shattering, nothing particularly unexpected, and very subtle shading of the horrors of war.

[Stephen Fodor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always a joy to read a Monica Hughes novel.

[Jannaia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful detail in the descriptions of Scottish landscapes and folklore, but this book follows a very well-worn formula:

Girl goes (unwillingly) to boarding school
Girl is smarter than rest of kids
Girl likes to read
Girl meets mean girl
Girl meets nice girl
Girl finds herself in extraordinary circumstances and thus discovers that she herself is extraordinary
Girl solves mystery
Mean girl apologizes and is nice to Girl
Girl is forever changed/improved by the experience

Though the plot was formulaic, the setting was serene. I loved walking through the hilly countryside and along the shore. I liked the language, the different accents the students adopt while at school, and the vernacular of the factor and his wife. I'm a sucker for these kind of stories so enjoyed it overall.

[Cupof Tea · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took a few pages to get into this book, but once the setting was revealed as a place I am familiar with I could picture every scene.

In the first chapter our heroine Maureen must leave her home in Saint Andrews and travel across the country to a boarding school near Oban for the Duration. She discovers she must change trains in Dunblane, and since I have a special connection to that particular station I could really feel myself transported through the story from that point on.

It's a short story, with tales of the old ones, mean girls, and wartime drama. This is why I continue to love Monica Hughes. A story completely different than the sci-fi I normally read of hers, but still fabulous.

[Readersaurus]

Thoroughly enjoying this old-fashioned feeling story of a young girl in early World War 2 Scotland. I must ask the question, though: Why, oh why, does anyone send their children to those boarding schools? In literature, the kids always behave so hideously to one another and all of the adults are oblivious.