The Changeover
First edition
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| Author | Margaret Mahy |
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| Cover artist | Bruce Hogarth (depicted) |
| Country | New Zealand |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Young adult fantasy, supernatural fiction |
| Publisher | J. M. Dent & Sons |
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Publication date
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1 May 1984 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 214 pp (first edition) |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 12449148 |
| LC Class | PZ7.M2773 Ch 1984 |
The Changeover: a Supernatural Romance is a low fantasy novel for young adults by Margaret Mahy, published in 1984 by J. M. Dent in the U.K. It is set in Christchurch in the author's native New Zealand.
Mahy and The Changeover won the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject. Thus she became the fourth writer with two such honours (of seven through 2012), having won the 1982 Medal for The Haunting.
Atheneum Books published a U.S. edition within the year.
WorldCat reports that The Changeover is Mahy's novel most widely held in participating libraries, second among all her works behind a picture book collaboration, The Seven Chinese Brothers (1989).
The Changeover is set in a fairly new suburb of Christchurch called Gardendale; Mahy had renamed the suburb of Bishopdale for her book. It has a fairy-tale plot, with a devoted sister risking her life to save her bewitched brother. In some respects a coming-of-age story, it is also an unconventional romance between an aloof and difficult boy who happens to be a male witch and a strong-willed, psychically sensitive schoolgirl.
Laura Chant has one of her "warnings", a premonition that something is about to happen, but is forced to ignore it and go to school as usual. On the way home, she and her younger brother Jacko encounter the sinister Carmody Braque, who 'playfully' stamps Jacko's hand, the stamp appearing as an image of his face.
As Jacko becomes increasingly ill, Laura believes he has been possessed. She seeks the help of Sorensen "Sorry" Carlisle, recognized by her as a witch in hiding though to others he seems just a painfully well-behaved school prefect who photographs birds as a hobby. She learns that Braque is an ancient being who consumes the life force of others to keep himself alive. Sorry's grandmother Winter, one of a long line of witches, recommends that Laura should "changeover" from her normal life, becoming a witch or "woman of the moon" herself. As such she can trick the unwary Braque into putting himself in her power. Although warned that the changeover can be dangerous, Laura is determined to save her brother, now very near death.
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Wikipedia