The Catalogue of the Universe - Softcover

Mahy, Margaret

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0590404504 ISBN 13: 9780590404501

Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks, 1987

Synopsis

When Angela May decides to find her father, who left the family before she was born, Tycho Potter, a close friend, worries that she'll be hurt if she succeeds

About this title

About the Author:

Margaret Mahy was born in New Zealand and has loved telling stories all her life. She has published well over a hundred titles and won several major prizes and awards, including The Order of New Zealand, for her internationally-acclaimed contribution to children's literature. She has twice won the prestigious Carnegie Medal, (The Haunting, 1982, and The Changeover, 1984). Margaret lives in the South Island of New Zealand, in a house which she partially built herself, overlooking Governor's Bay.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 9 Up Both Angela and Tycho had romantic notions: she about her unknown father, whom her mother had never married, and he for beautiful, sensual Angela. As Angela locates her father and plots a course to make him discover her, she learns that commonsense is a neat, symmetrical, misleading circle whereas truth is slightly elliptical and wobbly. As short, homely, brilliant Tycho contemplates the stars and planets to understand his family problems and hopeless love, Angela's confrontation with her father precipitates the emotional trauma of rejection. Through this turmoil, she recognizes her romantic feelings for Tycho, and the two have their first sexual encounter. Other stories of daughters searching for fathers deal with inner turmoil and search-for-self as here, but Mahy's is unique due to the distinct, unusual personalities; the New Zealand setting; the teenagers' fascination with the components of the universe and Mahy's use of analogies with fresh descriptions conveying sharp, vivid images. This story is brightly lit with perceptions and the universal inscrutability of finding one's place. The occult shivers in previous Mahy books don't occur here, but the atmosphere is electrically charged with the uncommon tone, eccentric characters and meshing of circumstances with feelings that should both appeal to and challenge YA readers and leave them pondering the center of their universe. Julie Cummins, Monroe County Library System, Rochester, N.Y.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks
• Publication date: 1987
• ISBN 10: 0590404504
• ISBN 13: 9780590404501
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 228