Ever since I picked up and idly opened Margaret Mahy's 'The Changeover" in a second-hand bookstore quite a long time ago, it has always been numbered among my favorite books and I always feel the urge, once in a while, to visit Laura Chant and Sorenson Carlisle in their nice little quiet corner of New Zealand where things aren't quite as they seem. Besides, it's the 13th of October... how appropriate.

Aside from its pretty little supernatural plot, which already half-sold me upon the book the instant I read the teaser on its back cover, the main thing I love about "The Changeover" is Margaret Mahy's way with words, for she has the rare knack of taking a commonplace event and describing it in such a different manner that you yourself are compelled to look at it with new eyes. The words on the front cover of my copy of this book that say "Winner of the Carnegie Medal" don't hurt, either.

I had the urge to look in on Lolly and Sorry this week, hence this teaser. There were so many tempting passages on the page at which I opened the book that I wanted to post them all, but since we're allowed just one, here's what I finally picked:

"Laura was alone with the day. It panted at her with a stale sweetness on its breath, with a faint, used-peppermint smell that made her want to be sick in the gutter, but she shut her mouth tightly and walked on."
- p. 13, 'The Changeover" by Margaret Mahy

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!