By Dan Parker
While Margaret Mahy may no longer be with us, her legacy is alive and well and being read in classrooms around the country.
Ms Mahy has over 200 books to her name and they're still as popular as the day they were published.
Her stories have been inspiring young minds for decades and her legacy is that they will continue to do so for many more.
“The richness of the language in her books has set kids’ imaginations on fire, she writes about things that interest them, you know, dragons and witches,” says assistant principal Kerry Annett.
But it isn't just children that have been influenced by Mahy.
“I was trying to be like her and thinking about how everything in the world was potential for a story, she used to say you have to go out in to the world and wrench a story from it,” says author Kate De Goldi.
That ability made Mahy a household name here and loved by readers around the world.
“She is probably our most famous ever children’s writer,” says Tony Simpson, president of the Society of Authors.
And her contemporaries also agree she'll be remembered alongside the greats of New Zealand literature.
“In a curious way she parallels Katherine Mansfield," says Mr Simpso. "Mansfield is a master of the situation in the short story form because she could get inside people's heads and then write down the thought and get them right, and Margaret could do that with children."
And it is that connection which will live on as new generations discover Mahy's magnificent collection of stories.
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