I loved this story of three kids (1 girl and 2 boys) who are trying to adjust to their new life together after their parents marry. Hilary McKay does such an incredible job with bringing these characters to life. I felt I was with them on their journey learning about trust, fear, friendship, making mistakes (and owning them), and ultimately the joy in coming together. The magic in the story takes shape in the most glorious of ways and truly delighted me. ( )

{Stand-alone. Children’s (8-12), fantasy}(2020)

Catches the spirit of childhood without being twee or precious. Magical. (Set in London).

Eleven year old Abi (Abigail) was always an only child until her father, Theo, remarried and she acquired a stepmother and two brothers, one older and one younger and she didn't quite feel like she fitted in any more.

Louis, although utterly messy in his appearance, was obsessively tidy in his room. .... Max lived in a great heap of Max junk. He and Louis stuck a line of tape across their bedroom floor, dividing the enormous Max mess from the extreme neatness of Louis. Nothing could stop Louis seeing over the line, though, just as nothing could save Max from having to listen to Louis droning himself to sleep at night, like an out-of-tune mosquito.

(This made me laugh, so I read it again and it made me laugh again. 😄 It reminds me of my kids. And of my sister.)

Then the family moved houses and their new house, covered in ivy, felt magical and right. Everyone finally got their own rooms and there was even space for Rocky, the antique rocking horse that Abi had inherited from her mother. But maybe the house really is magical.

You know the feeling you get when you're absorbed in a good book, as though you're really there? (Of course you do.) Abi starts to realise that she has been transported when, for example, she tastes salt water after reading a book about a sea voyage. And maybe six year old Louis's imaginary pet isn't quite so imaginary.

I really liked this book. The magical adventures felt believable. But behind the story you can see the family unconsciously coming together. Although the children have their resentments and reactions at losing their old way of life, before they became one family, they also have moments of thoughtless kindness towards one another. I found the children were portrayed realistically and not as ultra-sweet or from an adult's doting view point (as in some books I've read recently); they have their uncertainties, their flaws, their moments of selflessness, their moments of unreasonableness and their tantrums (but without coming across as brats either).

“I am not your sister, and don‘t you dare put your disgusting spitty feet on my quilt.”
“All right,” said Louis, and rubbed them on Abi‘s bedside rug instead.
“You are truly disgusting,” said Abi severely, “and you should put those horrible pajamas in the washing basket.”
“What, now?”
“YES NOW!” said Abi.
Louis slid off the bed and disappeared, but came back much too quickly.
“I‘ve done it,” he said cheerfully.

(Louis is 6 years old and rather literal-minded. Very much like my 12 year old. Boys! )

I like Theo and Polly and the way they relate to all the children. They don't show any favouritism and they know how to deal with fraught situations, especially Theo who is an emergency room nurse. Hah - maybe they're too good to be true ;0)

This was a gentle, sweet story but with some tension when it came to the adventures. It made me laugh out loud and it made me feel like hugging my kids. It says, in the copyright bumph, that the target audience is 8-12 years old but it doesn't talk down to readers. I would put the upper age range higher; as an adult, I really enjoyed it.

One last quote because this, too, was familiar.

... where a recorder club was tormenting a Christmas carol to shrieking ribbons, ...

Recommended.

March 2021
5 stars ( )

In this particular narrative, McKay's writing style was pleasantly reminiscent of Zilpha Keatley Snyder's perspective on writing for the young end of the YA group. The family dynamics shift and change in the blended family as the kids face unexpected situations. Throughout the book, McKay's voice remains authentic in maintaining the realities that children and young teens face. The writing is warm, full of quirky family dynamics, some friendship drama, and more than a hint of magical mystery.

I'm looking forward to reading McKay's novels about the Casson family, but I have a sense that The Time of Green Magic will remain a favourite. For those who may be curious, I dropped one star because the ending felt a little too skimpy. I don't exactly know why, just that there was some feeling of an adulty 'wrapping up' and trying to tie a bow. But I really liked that Louis received a letter from Granny Grace. ( )

Abi is just starting, unwillingly, to settle into her new blended family, when they must pack up and move because the landlord has other plans for their tiny rental. House after house proves unacceptable or unaffordable, until the whole family falls in love with an ivy-covered cottage just above their price range. In her new bedroom, Abi finds a box of old books and discovers that she can literally disappear into them -- and that's just the beginning of the house's secrets. But what will happen when the magic grows out of control?

This has many of the hallmarks of McKay's writing: warm, quirky family dynamics, friendship drama, and a hint of magical mystery. I didn't love it as much as I've loved some of her books (the Casson Family series, particularly), but I did kind of fall in love with the house. For young readers looking for this kind of story, it will scratch an itch. ( )

When Polly and Theo meet and fall in love, their children are less than delighted, especially when the households are combined - and then when they have to move a second time. But Theo's daughter Abi finds them a perfect house, covered in ivy, and they all move in. Soon after, however, strange things begin to happen: as Abi reads, she falls into the stories and returns with salt in her eyes, snow in her hair, leaves from trees in Amsterdam. And little Louis, who longs for an owl ("a nowl") gets a cat instead - a cat that comes in through the window and grows, and grows. Fourteen-year-old Max is unaffected at first, but when he finally sees Iffen, he agrees with Abi that the cat has got to go - they just have to figure out where it came from first, and send it back. Abi knows Iffen must have come out of a book - but Louis doesn't read. Together, the children solve their problem, with a little help from Max's friend Danny and Louis' French art student babysitter, Esme. The parents are largely absent - Polly on a long work trip, Theo working as a nurse at A&E, though when he is home he is an excellent parent to all three kids.

"It was like a dream. One moment I was here in the house, and the next I was there. I know it's impossible. It doesn't happen always. You have to be reading...deeply...with all of you....You know, how you read so everything else goes away...?" (Abi to Max, 176)

See also: When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller; Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn; The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton ( )