Best Selling Books by Margaret Mahy

Seventeen kings and forty-two elephants romp with a variety of jungle animals during their journey through a wild, wet night. Suggested level: junior, primary.

Eleven stories ranging from the fantastic to the absurd. In the title story Mr Frisbee''s prize angora goats are saved from the infamous Gargle Goat Thief Gang by his five daughters armed with Dr Gumption''s Triple Super Duper Minty-mint Gum.

Seventeen-year-old Ellis has just graduated from prep school. In the next 24 hours, he will find an old friend, shave his head, get a tattoo, and help rescue a kidnapped baby.

Baxter the dog wakes at the same time as his mistress and is eager and ready to go for a walk at the same time as she is. Suggested level: junior.

Monty is allergic to ghosts-if there''s one around, he sneezes. That''s how he discovers a ghost-girl called Lulu haunting an old vintage car at the bottom of the garden.

The kitten has climbed the Christmas tree! Climbed so high and climbed so far to cling with her claws to the Christmas star. So begins the magically illustrated story of the - Christmas Tree Tangle - in which the kitten, the cat, the dog, the goat and even the pigs get stuck in the branches of the town Christmas tree. This is a delightful tale to read along with Children at the festive season.

Whenever Mrs. Finch grows something and cooks it for Mr. Finch, he always grumbles that he wants something else. This changes when Mrs. Finch grows a wonder tree.

The adventurous life of a wonderful aunt who would try anything once.

Seven Chinese brothers elude execution by virtue of their extraorinary individual qualities. Suggested level: juniors, primary.

In the first of these two short stories, Bassington, a rich little boy who has never had a birthday, decides to steal one from Mrs. Herringbone and Joanna Joy. In the second story, headmistress Tatiana Taffeta seeks an affluent farmer''s hand in marriage.

The lives of Jack and Naomi Hamilton, their five children, their guest, and friends are disturbed by the arrival of three mysterious and sinister young men at Carnival''s Hide, the Hamilton''s seaside home in New Zealand, and by bizarre supernatural events.

Amusing stories. First published 1977.

Tris and Winola find the underrunners, a vast network of tunnels, the ideal place to escape their unhappy lives and act out their fantasies, but the tunnels become a dangerous place when invaded by an unseen stranger.

The first story concerns and impossibly wealthy small boy who has everything but birthdays. He sets out to steal some, to the wrath of his victims, for each of whom the stolen birthday had special importance. In the second story the headmistress of a select school marries for money with unfortunate results.

Designed to introduce children to a wide range of social activities and relationships as well as general life skills.

Carnegie medal-winning supernatural romance from Margaret Mahy.