(2) PS Illustrated by Gavin Bishop. Mister Whistler sets off to visit his great-aunt, but the song in his head makes him misplace his train ticket. Garment by garment, he checks his pockets and dances his way out of his clothes, displaying virtuosic flexibility and sartorial flamboyance. This dressing, undressing, and dressing-again story is a vivacious display of Mahy's perfect timing and picture-book-plotting.

Reviewer: Deirdre F. Baker | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2013

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Steven Kellogg. Sammy's mother insists that he take a bath before Grandma arrives, and their new green bathtub takes the boy on a wild seafaring adventure. Kellogg's exuberant, finely detailed artistic style complements the bathtub mariner's jaunt with a friendly sea serpent and mermaids, his "bath-and-buccaneer battle," and the rollicking trip home (laden with pirate treasure) to his mother and grandma.

Reviewer: Sheila M. Geraty

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Polly Dunbar. With this latest nonsense-verse offering, Mahy places herself right up there with the nineteenth-century masters of the form, Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll. The quirky exuberance of Dunbar's playful watercolor illustrations is a perfect match for Mahy's verse; they show two young children reveling in a zany visit from a man they themselves created as a larger-than-life painting that flew off the page.

Reviewer: Kathleen T. Horning | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2012

(2) YA Heriot Tarbas reads thoughts for the King of Hoad. To discover his power's real purpose, Heriot must bring together his divided self, as farm boy and magician. Mahy majestically deploys poetic language to portray the changes and challenges of adolescence. Here, an epic quest for identity is wrapped up in terror, romance, and suspense, sustained by luminous imagery and intelligent, musical prose.

Reviewer: Deirdre F. Baker | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2009

(1) PS Illustrated by Polly Dunbar. When Mabel blows a bubble, it causes trouble in an inimitable Mahy way, surrounding Baby and taking him on an amazing adventure. The text's tongue-stumbling internal rhymes will keep storytellers on their toes, while Dunbar's cut-paper and watercolor illustrations faithfully depict every detail. As suspense builds in both words and pictures, little ones' eyes will be as round as the bubble.

Reviewer: Robin L. Smith | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2009

(3) 4-6 In this picaresque fantasy set after civilization has self-destructed and partially recovered, a traveling circus tries to procure a converter for the city of Solis, which is running out of power. Mahy juggles an ambitiously large number of characters, settings, crises, lucky escapes, and imaginative marvels (though there are some occasional contradictory details). The journey's extended tension will lure action fans.

Reviewer: Betsy Hearne | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2007

(2) YA In this contemporary tale, seventeen-year-old Roland seems on the surface to have it all. But he's haunted by a recurring dream of himself at age four, placed in a coffin--and changed in some frightening way--by a magician name Quando. With her linguistic adroitness, Mahy plays with Browning's "Childe Roland to the dark tower came." Mahy is at her best when all the pieces of this puzzle come together.

Reviewer: Susan P. Bloom | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2003

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Sarah Garland. Although the family is dismayed when their dog chases seagulls, tangles with other dogs, and messes up his freshly coifed coat, they are thrilled when he rescues their toddler from drowning. "Look at him walking there--docile and dutiful, / Draggling and dripping...but utterly beautiful." The lively illustrations expand the text, which often uses clever or unexpected rhymes.

Reviewer: Patricia Riley

(1) YA Ellis is both yearning for wild adventure and trying to deal with a friend's recent suicide. Mahy takes us on a twenty-four-hour roller-coaster ride in which staid Ellis has his head shorn, gets a little skull tattoo, and rescues a kidnapped baby. Not since Memory has the brilliance of Mahy's literary gift found a better home than in this resilient tale of life, both mundane and far-out, winning out over death.

Reviewer: Susan P. Bloom | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2000

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Jonathan Allen. Having bought a "double-dip-chocolate-chip-and-cherry ice cream with rainbow twinkles and chopped-nut sprinkles" for his son, Mr. Minky rides his bike along the shorter jungle track to get home before the ice cream melts--but finds himself fending off two butterflies, a toucan, a spider monkey, and more. The tongue-twisting text and comical illustrations swiftly propel the silly story forward.

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 1999

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Selina Young. Published spring 1998. One happy adult, four merry children, and two boisterous dogs embark on a summer hike to the seashore, only to have a rousing adventure when a goose and her seven goslings chase them away. The lilting, catchy rhyme will encourage reader participation; the insouciant cartoon line drawings, reminiscent of Nadine Bernard Westcott's artwork, humorously capture the lighthearted escapade.

Reviewer: Sheryl Lee Saunders

(3) K-3 A sly ribbing of parents who refuse to buy their children toy guns or knives comes when a father-son team disarms a bank robber by using a balloon, a chocolate cake, and a flower pot. The gist is that any object can deliver violence, depending on "who happens to be holding what and when." Once again Allen's unassuming cartoon illustrations perfectly suit Mahy's gently pointed wit.

Reviewer: The Horn Book, Inc.