Margaret Mahy (born in Whakatane, New Zealand) is a well-known New Zealand author of children's and young adult books. While the plots of many of her books have strong supernatural elements, her writing concentrates on the themes of human relationships and growing up. Her books "The Haunting" and "The Changeover" both received the Carnegie Medal of the British Library Association. She has written a little less than 50 novels, including the recent "Alchemy" in 2002. Among her children's books, "A Lion in the Meadow", "The Seven Chinese Brothers", and "The Man Whose Mother was a Pirate" are considered national classics.