The Haunting is a children's fantasy novel by Margaret Mahy

Margaret Mahy

Margaret Mahy ONZ 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: A Supernatural...

. It was first published in 1982 and won the Carnegie Medal

Carnegie Medal

The Carnegie Medal is a literary award established in 1936 in honour of Scottish philanthropist Andrew Carnegie and given annually to an outstanding book for children and young adults. It is awarded by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals...

 for that year.

Plot introduction

Barney Palmer, a shy eight-year-old boy, discovers that one person in each generation of his family has had supernatural gifts – and this generation it seems to be him. He believes he is haunted by the ghost of an uncle he never met, and is oppressed by his fate. However, his sister Tabitha is determined to help him.

Essays

• Symposium papers including: "Some Operations of Truth: A personal response to Margaret Mahy's The Haunting" by John McKenzie, a paper presented at a Margaret Mahy Symposium in Christchurch in 2006
• “Feminism, Freud and the Fairytale: Reading Margaret Mahy’s The Haunting” by C. Marquis, Landfall
  Landfall (journal)
  Landfall is New Zealand's oldest extant literary journal. First published in 1947 by Caxton Press, under the editorship of Charles Brasch, it features new fiction and poetry, biographical and critical essays, cultural commentary, and reviews of books, art, film, drama and dance.Additionally, the...
  
  , No. 162, 1987 pp. 186-205