What do you think?
Rate this book
The Chewing-Gum Rescue & Other Stories
Eleven splendid new stories by the witty and perceptive author of some of the best children's fiction of recent years. This collection ranges from the hilarious title story to the pure fantasy of "The Traveling Boy and the Stay-at-Home Bird" and "The Devil and the Corner Grocer", with many varying moods in between.
Hardcover
First published December 1, 1988
2 people are currently reading
64 people want to read
About the author
Margaret Mahy
404 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...
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
March 26, 2021
I don't think I'll read a better book for the rest of the year. This book...I read it in real book form, and I had sworn never to go back to treeware.
But this book about children, magic and sometimes the elderly, is a fantastic book. I absolutely do think that it's better than any Percy Jackson story. Maybe it's better than even that precursor to many subgenres; Tom Sawyer.
I'm feeling reckless enough to compare Mahy to Twain. Go read this. It blows Isabelle Allende's magic realism out of the water.
I do know that Mahy is only human. I tried reading one of her other books. It was garbage. But THIS. Is a masterpiece.
But this book about children, magic and sometimes the elderly, is a fantastic book. I absolutely do think that it's better than any Percy Jackson story. Maybe it's better than even that precursor to many subgenres; Tom Sawyer.
I'm feeling reckless enough to compare Mahy to Twain. Go read this. It blows Isabelle Allende's magic realism out of the water.
I do know that Mahy is only human. I tried reading one of her other books. It was garbage. But THIS. Is a masterpiece.
January 16, 2012
This is one of my all time favorite books, I've read all of the stories at least 100 times and I still love it. My favorite is probably The Midnight Story on Griffon Hill but they're all wonderful.
July 18, 2024
So fun to revisit this childhood fave with Sid. As with all short story collections this is a bit uneven but there are some real bangers in here- namely The Giant’s Bath, The Devil and the Corner Grocer, and The Pumpkins of Witch Crunch. These are beautifully told, imaginative stories, of worlds like our own but just a little bit different and more magical. Stories that twist and turn and go where you never quite expect them to. Such fun.
July 26, 2024
ENGLISH: Eleven short stories, of which I had read three before. Of these, the story giving title to the collection is quite silly. My favorites are:
The midnight story: Griffins aren't all dead! And they weep, not pearls but salt water, which is rather more useful.
The giant's bath: Every home should have a giant's bath with giant's soap, so as to be able to control dragons!
The World's Highest Tray Cloth: Helen doesn't like to do cross-stitch. She'd rather climb trees, especially that huge pine, from whose top she'd be able to look at the sea and wave her flag!
The singing bus line: An original story about a bus-line choir.
And the best of all: The devil and the corner grocer
ESPAÑOL: Once cuentos, de los que tres los había leído antes. De estos, el que da título a la colección es muy tonto. Mis favoritos son:
El cuento de medianoche: ¡No todos los grifos han muerto! Y lloran, aunque no lloren perlas, sino agua salada, que es bastante más útil.
El baño del gigante: ¡Toda casa debería tener un baño de gigante con jabón de gigante, para poder controlar a los dragones!
El tapete de bandeja más alto del mundo: a Helen no le gusta hacer punto de cruz. ¡Prefiere trepar a los árboles, especialmente a ese enorme pino, desde cuya cima podría contemplar el mar y ondear su bandera!
La cola del autobús cantante: Un cuento original sobre el coro de una cola de autobús.
Y el mejor de todos: El diablo y el tendero de la esquina
The midnight story: Griffins aren't all dead! And they weep, not pearls but salt water, which is rather more useful.
The giant's bath: Every home should have a giant's bath with giant's soap, so as to be able to control dragons!
The World's Highest Tray Cloth: Helen doesn't like to do cross-stitch. She'd rather climb trees, especially that huge pine, from whose top she'd be able to look at the sea and wave her flag!
The singing bus line: An original story about a bus-line choir.
And the best of all: The devil and the corner grocer
ESPAÑOL: Once cuentos, de los que tres los había leído antes. De estos, el que da título a la colección es muy tonto. Mis favoritos son:
El cuento de medianoche: ¡No todos los grifos han muerto! Y lloran, aunque no lloren perlas, sino agua salada, que es bastante más útil.
El baño del gigante: ¡Toda casa debería tener un baño de gigante con jabón de gigante, para poder controlar a los dragones!
El tapete de bandeja más alto del mundo: a Helen no le gusta hacer punto de cruz. ¡Prefiere trepar a los árboles, especialmente a ese enorme pino, desde cuya cima podría contemplar el mar y ondear su bandera!
La cola del autobús cantante: Un cuento original sobre el coro de una cola de autobús.
Y el mejor de todos: El diablo y el tendero de la esquina
September 25, 2017
This book has haunted me for years.
As a kid, I read books voraciously. At night, when my parents made me sleep, I would listen to audiobooks. There was one I checked out over and over and over again because it was fantastic. It was a compilation of short stories that were alternately scary and funny and scary-funny. As an adult, I couldn't remember the title, author, or most of the identifying details for this book. I recently found out my sister had had the same experience and with her vague memories, I was finally able to track this one down!
I'm so glad I did (and so sad to see this is out of print- thank god for Amazon)! The storytelling is every bit as rich as I remember and the stories themselves are so creative. It's not nearly as scary as I remember (that may have had something to do with listening to it into the night), but it's exceeded expectations in every other way.
As a kid, I read books voraciously. At night, when my parents made me sleep, I would listen to audiobooks. There was one I checked out over and over and over again because it was fantastic. It was a compilation of short stories that were alternately scary and funny and scary-funny. As an adult, I couldn't remember the title, author, or most of the identifying details for this book. I recently found out my sister had had the same experience and with her vague memories, I was finally able to track this one down!
I'm so glad I did (and so sad to see this is out of print- thank god for Amazon)! The storytelling is every bit as rich as I remember and the stories themselves are so creative. It's not nearly as scary as I remember (that may have had something to do with listening to it into the night), but it's exceeded expectations in every other way.
March 5, 2012
Possibly my favorite childhood book EVER!
May 17, 2020
Esta es una interesante colección de cuentos para niños, la recomiendo mucho. Son tocados temas de forma sensible, cándido y con un sano humor reflexivo; podemos leer sobre la paternidad y sus conflictos; la valentía, el no dejar lugar a los malos estereotipos y el sacrificio por los demás. Es hermoso ver cómo a través de una sencilla narrativa se pueden expresar a los niños tan importantes lecciones.
[SPOILER ALERT]
Quedé encantado con la trama de la mayoría de ellos, aunque no necesariamente con sus desenlaces.
La aventura de los Madero desde el baño de los gigantes a la playa me atrapó, pero algo que recuerdo y valoro, es la simples pero nada superficiales conversaciones con la princesa y el dragón. La actitud de sacrificio de la princesa como una gobernante lejana de la tiranía son medios para que los niños inquieran discernimiento. El humor que se contabiliza con el señor Madero es memorable, más en sus consejos al dragón.
La introspección del señor Ingoldsby sobre su paternidad es íntima, y tanto padres como hijos pueden aprender de ello. Saber como el hombre más gracioso para otros, era amargado a sus prójimos más cercanos, a quienes debía darles más sonrisas. La corta odisea que se provoca después de que el señor Ingoldsby, con amarga melancolía, escribiera un cuento triste y lo desechara por la ventana, para luego ir por ella y encontrarse con Grifo, es como una epifanía para él y sus deseos. Su regreso y amor hacia sus hijos, junto con la laguna de lágrimas de Grifo, le da mayor esplendor a su final.
Quisiera resaltar la hermosa aventura de Helen con su mantelito, aunque un cuento un tanto desobediente, sí útil para demostrar, aunque de forma muy corta, que algunos estereotipos son inútiles y que se debe animar a los niños a trabajar, de forma creativa e innovadora, en lo que podría llegar a hacer una vocación o un medio para cultivar mejor su carácter. Su relación con los demás niños y su temple al subir hasta la copa de un pino, no son lecciones para niños únicamente, son para nosotros los que ya no medimos menos de un metro.
Como educador, aprecio estos cuentos. Aprendí, reí y disfruté. Aún hay otros que no describí, e invito que vayan a leerlos para compartir juntos el disfrute de letras bien ordenadas, que aunque dirigidas para niños, es un deleite para todos.
[SPOILER ALERT]
Quedé encantado con la trama de la mayoría de ellos, aunque no necesariamente con sus desenlaces.
La aventura de los Madero desde el baño de los gigantes a la playa me atrapó, pero algo que recuerdo y valoro, es la simples pero nada superficiales conversaciones con la princesa y el dragón. La actitud de sacrificio de la princesa como una gobernante lejana de la tiranía son medios para que los niños inquieran discernimiento. El humor que se contabiliza con el señor Madero es memorable, más en sus consejos al dragón.
La introspección del señor Ingoldsby sobre su paternidad es íntima, y tanto padres como hijos pueden aprender de ello. Saber como el hombre más gracioso para otros, era amargado a sus prójimos más cercanos, a quienes debía darles más sonrisas. La corta odisea que se provoca después de que el señor Ingoldsby, con amarga melancolía, escribiera un cuento triste y lo desechara por la ventana, para luego ir por ella y encontrarse con Grifo, es como una epifanía para él y sus deseos. Su regreso y amor hacia sus hijos, junto con la laguna de lágrimas de Grifo, le da mayor esplendor a su final.
Quisiera resaltar la hermosa aventura de Helen con su mantelito, aunque un cuento un tanto desobediente, sí útil para demostrar, aunque de forma muy corta, que algunos estereotipos son inútiles y que se debe animar a los niños a trabajar, de forma creativa e innovadora, en lo que podría llegar a hacer una vocación o un medio para cultivar mejor su carácter. Su relación con los demás niños y su temple al subir hasta la copa de un pino, no son lecciones para niños únicamente, son para nosotros los que ya no medimos menos de un metro.
Como educador, aprecio estos cuentos. Aprendí, reí y disfruté. Aún hay otros que no describí, e invito que vayan a leerlos para compartir juntos el disfrute de letras bien ordenadas, que aunque dirigidas para niños, es un deleite para todos.
December 19, 2024
Margaret Mahy è una scrittrice SUPERBA.
Per me è complementare a Dahl, per via dell'inventiva delle sue storie, dell'intelligenza narrativa nell'elaborarle, nella struttura dei racconti - questo, nello specifico, è un libro che raccoglie 11 racconti (La battaglia delle chewing-gum, Il bagno del gigante, Storie di mezzanotte sulla Collina del Grifone, Le zucche della strega Sgranocchia, La tovaglietta più alta del mondo, Il bambino che inventava le cose, Gli strani inquilini patchwork della discarica, Il ragazzo che amava viaggiare e l'uccello sedentario, Guanti e giardini, Una coda d'autobus davvero speciale, Il diavolo e il droghiere d'angolo) e i primi due mi hanno davvero entusiasmata.
Peccato che sia un fuori catalogo di Mondadori (faceva parte degli Junior -10 dei miei amatissimi Mondojunior), spero lo ripubblichino prima o poi, perché la Mahy merita di essere letta anche dai bambini e ragazzi di oggi.
Per me è complementare a Dahl, per via dell'inventiva delle sue storie, dell'intelligenza narrativa nell'elaborarle, nella struttura dei racconti - questo, nello specifico, è un libro che raccoglie 11 racconti (La battaglia delle chewing-gum, Il bagno del gigante, Storie di mezzanotte sulla Collina del Grifone, Le zucche della strega Sgranocchia, La tovaglietta più alta del mondo, Il bambino che inventava le cose, Gli strani inquilini patchwork della discarica, Il ragazzo che amava viaggiare e l'uccello sedentario, Guanti e giardini, Una coda d'autobus davvero speciale, Il diavolo e il droghiere d'angolo) e i primi due mi hanno davvero entusiasmata.
Peccato che sia un fuori catalogo di Mondadori (faceva parte degli Junior -10 dei miei amatissimi Mondojunior), spero lo ripubblichino prima o poi, perché la Mahy merita di essere letta anche dai bambini e ragazzi di oggi.
October 17, 2021
Muy bonita cada historia.
October 25, 2023
Recuerdo haberlo leído de niño, y volverlo a leer me trajo gratos recuerdos. Lindo libro para pasar una tarde.
September 18, 2024
"The Devil and the Corner Grocer," is my favorite of this collection. I love a good fictional look at the struggle of good vs evil.
September 24, 2024
Perdón, pero no me acuerdo de qué trataba jaja, aunque puede ser el paso del tiempo ya que lo leí en 2015.
January 23, 2015
La sinopsis lo dice todo. Este libro es una recopilación de cuentos infantiles bastante divertidos y con un toque de fantasía. Con moralejas en cada historia.
Es de fácil lectura, lo recomiendo si quieres pasar un rato de lectura divertida. Son apenas 134 paginas y cada cuento tiene ilustraciones.
Es de fácil lectura, lo recomiendo si quieres pasar un rato de lectura divertida. Son apenas 134 paginas y cada cuento tiene ilustraciones.
April 25, 2016
Me gustó mucho, me identifiqué con Sam, el protagonista del tercer cuento si no me equivoco.
Y mis cuentos favoritos fueron el primero y el último que es el más largo me gustó bastante.
En fin, no me arrepiento de haberlo leído.
Y mis cuentos favoritos fueron el primero y el último que es el más largo me gustó bastante.
En fin, no me arrepiento de haberlo leído.
July 19, 2014
A great read aloud book as a class novel. My kids loved the short stories in this book, especially the chewing gum rescue itself.
November 5, 2014
A book from my youth and the stories have stayed with me. Highly recommended for children.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews