Book Description
for The Changeover by Margaret Mahy
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
Fourteen-year-old Laura knows that her younger brother is being preyed upon by an ominous being named Carmody Braque but neither her mother nor the medical establishment will believe her. Laura turns for help to a strange boy, Sorry Carlisle. She discovers that Sorry's mother and grandmother have supernatural powers and are willing to help Laura undergo a changeover, an inward journey of self-discovery to seek out her own latent strength and power so that she will be able to fight Carmody Braque and save her brother. Subtle parallels drawn between the changeover and puberty allow for interpretation of the book as a multi-layered coming of age story, as well as a problem novel, a romance and a fantasy. (Age 14 and older)
CCBC Choices 1984 . © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 1984. Used with permission.