Book excerpt: Throughout her childhood she was making up stories. Before she could write she drew them. By the time she was seven she knew she wanted to write books. Margaret Mahy was a wizard of words and a spinner of magical stories. She was New Zealand's best known author for children, wrote more than 200 books and often appeared in a purple wig or a penguin suit while she delighted audiences with vivacious readings of her stories. But who was Margaret Mahy? What was she like as a child? How did she become a writer? Where did her weird and wonderful ideas come from? Turn these pages and step into a world of the magical Margaret Mahy.