From Publishers Weekly
Aimed at a slightly younger audience than Wynne Jones's novels (see The Time of the Ghost, p. 442), three extended tales form "an ideal introduction to the quirky humor and witchery that characterize this author's work," said PW. Ages 8-12. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
Diana Jones offers three stories of magic and fantasy. In each a spell occurs and changes the story line in a most unusual way. To the delight of the children and the consternation of their parents, a chair becomes a person, four grandmothers (divorce in the family) turn into Supergranny, and an unwelcome guest is chased away by the furniture. Narrator Judy Bennett enjoys the adventures as much as the author. Bennett further expands upon the absurdity in each situation through her presentation. The speech patterns of Chair Person are completely annoying; the varying voices and personalities of each grandmother are vivid; and the pomposity of the guest justifies the furniture's revenge. Bennett's delight in these escapades carries the listener deeper into each tale. A.R. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


Book Description

In three wild and wacky tales, find out what can happen when...

...An old armchair that you've finally decided to get rid of comes to life -- and has a definite attitude. It thinks it can rule the entire household!

...Not one, but four grannies come to take care of you and your stepsister. You manage to work some magic, and are granted three wishes -- but soon fear you may get what you wished for!

...The rudest uninvited house guest comes to visit -- and won't leave! He insults every person who comes his way. But when he starts in on the furniture, that's the last straw. Even the furniture thinks so!


Card catalog description
Includes three separate stories: "Chair Person," "The Four Grannies," and "Who Got Rid of Angus Flint?".


About the Author
Diana Wynne Jones was raised in the village of Thaxted, in Essex, England. She has been a compulsive storyteller for as long as she can remember enjoying most ardently those tales dealing with witches, hobgoblins, and the like. Ms. Jones lives in Bristol, England, with her husband, a professor of English at Bristol University. They have three sons and two granddaughters. In Her Own Words... "I decided to be a writer at the age of eight, but I did not receive any encouragement in this ambition until thirty years later. I think this ambition was fired-or perhaps exacerbated is a better word-by early marginal contacts with the Great, when we were evacuated to the English Lakes during the war. The house we were in had belonged to Ruskin's secretary and had also been the home of the children in the books of Arthur Ransome. One day, finding I had no paper to draw on, I stole from the attic a stack of exquisite flower-drawings, almost certainly by Ruskin himself, and proceeded to rub them out. I was punished for this. Soon after, we children offended Arthur Ransome by making a noise on the shore beside his houseboat. He complained. So likewise did Beatrix Potter, who lived nearby. It struck me then that the Great were remarkably touchy and unpleasant (even if, in Ruskin's case, it was posthumous), and I thought I would like to be the same, without the unpleasantness. "I started writing children's books when we moved to a village in Essex where there were almost no books. The main activities there were hand-weaving, hand-making pottery, and singing madrigals, for none of which I had either taste or talent. So, in intervals between trying to haunt the church and sitting on roofs hoping to learn to fly, I wrote enormous epic adventure stories which I read to my sisters instead of the real books we did not have. This writing was stopped, though, when it was decided I must be coached to go to University. A local philosopher was engaged to teach me Greek and philosophy in exchange for a dollhouse (my family never did things normally), and I eventually got a place at Oxford. "At this stage, despite attending lectures by J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, I did not expect to be writing fantasy. But that was what I started to write when I was married and had children of my own. It was what they liked best. But small children do not allow you the use of your brain. They used to jump on my feet to stop me thinking. And I had not realized how much I needed to teach myself about writing. I took years to learn, and it was not until my youngest child began school that I was able to produce a book which a publisher did not send straight back. "As soon as my books began to be published, they started coming true. Fantastic things that I thought I had made up keep happening to me. The most spectacular was Drowned Ammet. The first time I went on a boat after writing that book, an island grew up out of the sea and stranded us. This sort of thing, combined with the fact that I have a travel jinx, means that my life is never dull." Diana Wynne Jones is the author of many highly praised books for young readers, as well as three plays for children and a novel for adults. She lives in Bristol, England, with her husband, a professor of English at Bristol University. They have three sons.

ANNOTATION

The bestselling illustrator of "Harvey Potter's Balloon Farm" teams up with a Nobel laureate in this buoyant fantasy of a boy who brings home a wave. Stunning oil paintings shimmer with light and laughter in this unexpected, unforgettable tour de force.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

There have never been visitors like the ones in these three spellbinding stories.

In "Chair Person" it is Auntie Christa who turns up with an old conjurer's kit. Something from it gets spilled on an armchair, and the result is Chair Person. Chair Person is not very good at being a person, but he certainly makes his presence felt. When "The Four Grannies" come to take care of Emily and Erg, Erg wants to get rid of them so he can get on with inventing his Invention. Emily, who seems to have turned into a teddy bear, is no help, and four grannies are not easy for one boy to handle. In "Who Got Rid of Angus Flint?" the gentleman of the title is an awful college friend of Dad's who comes for a visit and wants to stay for good. He has a habit of picking the children up by the hair. Everybody wants Angus Flint to go, but he won't leave. Only with help from an unexpected source do the children finally get rid of him. Diana Wynne Jones again weaves her own brand of magic in these three ingenious, witty stories.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Set in a contemporary England that is only slightly beset by enchantments, these three stories brim with the wry takes on everyday situations and the marvelous slapstick wizardry that have made Jones's novels ( The Ogre Downstairs ) so howlingly funny. In ``Chair Person,'' a chance encounter with a genuine magic kit brings gloriously grumpy life to ``an armchair with a sofa opinion of itself.'' Armed with an insatiable appetite, a formidable lack of tact and a ceaseless flow of facts gleaned from an entire career spent in front of the television, the self-styled Chair Person threatens to take over Marcia and Simon's home. A chopstick that may or may not be a magic wand wreaks supernatural havoc when the title characters of ``Four Grannies'' come to take care of Erg and his step-sister Emily. In ``Who Got Rid of Angus Flint?'' an exceedingly unpleasant houseguest is finally vanquished when the tables--along with the grand piano, the carpet and assorted chairs--turn on him. None of these lighthearted stories possesses the emotional depth and the layers of meaning found in the author's novels for older readers--nor are they intended to. Aimed at a slightly younger audience, this book is an ideal introduction to the quirky humor and witchery that characterize this author's work, nicely complemented by the line drawings and spot illustrations scattered throughout the text. Ages 8-up. (May)

Publishers Weekly

Troublesome houseguests overstay their welcome in Stopping for a Spell (1993) by Diana Wynne Jones, including an unruly armchair in "Chair Person," monstrous matriarchs in "The Four Grannies" and a rude old friend in "Who Got Rid of Angus Flint?" Of the original, PW noted, "These three stories brim with the wry takes on everyday situations that have made Jones's novels so howlingly funny." Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

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