The Great White Man-Eating Shark by Margaret Mahy

In addition, some stories have been translated into Russian, Chinese and Icelandic.įor her contributions to children's literature she was made a member of the Order of New Zealand. Her novels have been translated into German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Italian, Japanese, Catalan and Afrikaans. 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. There have 100 children's books, 40 novels, and 20 collections of her stories published. Her books The Haunting and The Changeover: A Supernatural Romance both received the Carnegie Medal of the British Library Association.

While the plots of many of her books have strong supernatural elements, her writing concentrates on the themes of human relationships and growing up. It won Best Children's Animated Production at the Ottawa International Animation Festival, the CINE Golden Eagle Award in 1992, and the Bronze Medal from New York Festivals.Margaret Mahy was a well-known New Zealand author of children's and young adult books. The film was nominated for Best Animated Short at the 1992 Chicago International Children's Film Festival. The book was adapted into a 1991 animated short film with the same title. The picture book was used as an example of irony within children's books in the book Books in the Life of a Child. Norvin's wonderfully shifty eyes and the vivid expressions on the faces of his victims are certain to tickle funnybones'. The swimmers put up a net to stop the actual shark from entering Caramel Cove, but Norvin develops aquaphobia and is too scared to enter the water ever again.Ī Publishers Weekly review states, 'Mahy's amusing tongue-in-cheek tale meets its match in Allen's droll drawings. When Norvin appears on land while shaking, the others realize that he was never a shark. The shark states that she would lose her temper and bite Norvin if he does not marry her, leading Norvin to swimming away for his life.

After the people decide to start swimming again, Norvin tries to repeat the tactic, but a female shark confuses him for a real shark and asks to marry him. He makes a dorsal fin out of plastic and masquerades as a shark to scare the other swimmers out of the water. Norvin, a boy who closely resembles a shark, grows tired of bumping into people while swimming in a nearby beach called Caramel Cove. It was adapted into an award-winning 1991 animated short film. The Great White Man-Eating Shark: A Cautionary Tale is a 1989 picture book by Margaret Mahy and illustrated by Jonathan Allen.

The Great White Man-Eating Shark by Margaret Mahy