--- product_id: 40080848 title: "A Stitch in Time (Collins Modern Classics)" price: "Bs.390" currency: BOB in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.bo/products/40080848-a-stitch-in-time-collins-modern-classics store_origin: BO region: Bolivia --- # A Stitch in Time (Collins Modern Classics) **Price:** Bs.390 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** A Stitch in Time (Collins Modern Classics) - **How much does it cost?** Bs.390 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.bo](https://www.desertcart.bo/products/40080848-a-stitch-in-time-collins-modern-classics) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description A rediscovered children's classic, winner of the 1976 Whitbread Award, from the Booker Prize and Carnegie Medal-winning author of Moon Tiger and The Ghost of Thomas Kempe. Maria likes to be alone with her thoughts. She talks to animals and objects, and generally prefers them to people. But whilst on holiday she begins to hear things that aren’t there – a swing creaking, a dog barking – and when she sees a Victorian embroidered picture, Maria feels a strange connection with the ten-year-old, Harriet, who stitched it. But what happened to her? As Maria becomes more lost in Harriet’s world, she grows convinced that something tragic occurred… Perfect for fans of mysteries like Tom’s Midnight Garden, The Ghost of Thomas Kempe, Charlotte Sometimes, and My Friend Walter, A Stitch in Time is a classic of children's literature, from Booker Prize, Whitbread Award, and Carnegie Medal-winning author Penelope Lively. This new HarperCollins Children's Classics edition features an introduction by Michelle Magorian, author of Goodnight, Mister Tom . Review: Five Stars - beautifully written for younger readers Review: Four Stars - A delightful book about an only child and her adventures. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #2,677,282 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #3,718 in Children's Spine-Chilling Horror #6,174 in Children's Mystery, Detective, & Spy #6,529 in Children's Classics | | Customer Reviews | 4.2 out of 5 stars 280 Reviews | ## Images ![A Stitch in Time (Collins Modern Classics) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71vX7HoHkbL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Five Stars *by J***Y on March 1, 2017* beautifully written for younger readers ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Four Stars *by B***A on October 22, 2016* A delightful book about an only child and her adventures. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Almost Ghosts *by J***H on November 17, 2011* Penelope Lively has become a prize-winning adult novelist and writer. Initially she was a prize-winning children's author. My doctoral thesis in 1985 explored all of Lively's writings up to just before her Booker Prize winner "Moon Tiger". My thesis argued that there was close continuity in style and theme across Lively's children's and adult fiction. In fact an early novel "Going Back" is largely ABOUT children in World War II, but the central emotional point of the book is what happened to them as adults. Moreover, "Going Back" (like Richard Adams' "Watership Down") has been variously published as a CHILDREN'S book and also as an ADULT book. Most unusual. And a fine novel! Sometimes, for some authors, the literary genre -- children's literature, or adult novel -- blurs I titled my Lively thesis "Haunted Landscapes". Just so. Lively's first book (based on her final undergraduate Honours -- summa cum laude -- work in History) was a non-fiction discussion of the way almost the whole geographical face of Britain has been shaped by human occupation across millennia. With suitable historical training, it becomes easy to "read" the shape of the land and see the history. (How thrilled I was to visit England in 1996, and spot the tell-tale ridges of an ancient hill fort outside Blewbury, south of Oxford!) This sense of the visible past remaining within and interacting with the living present informs almost the whole of Lively's fiction. "A Stitch in Time" is one of Lively's masterpieces for children, alongside "The House in Norham Gardens". What is it about? A rather ordinary family goes to have a holiday at Lyme Regis -- famous for its cliffs and ancient fossils -- on the south coast of England. Adults will know this as the town of John Fowles' "The French Lieutenant's Woman", and the film. The family stays in a house which is usually, out of holiday season, occupied by an old lady. The daughter in the family is at the cusp between childhood and young adulthood. She is also a solitary person within the family -- an only-child -- and prone to talking to inanimate objects, such as petrol pumps, or animals, such as a cat (but a real cat, not a Cheshire cat). As the family settles into the house, the girl slowly begins to tune into the "spirit" of the house. This is NOT a ghost story. But it almost is. Maria hears a dog barking: but there is no dog. She finds that someone has been playing on the swing in the backyard: but there is no one in the backyard. Slowly Maria begins to suspect that a catastrophe occurred to someone in the house, many years earlier. Just as slowly Maria begins to suspect that a version of that catastrophe is threatening to occur. Clues. Hints. Guesses. Premonitions. This is far to good a book to spoil. But it has an uncanny-disaster-threat feeling that is similar to the classic Hollywood ghost-across-time romance "Portrait of Jenny", based on Robert Nathan's haunting novel. Another comparison is with Philippa Pearce's classic children's novel "Tom's Midnight Garden": a strange, haunting time-slip romance. It also has aspects of the surrealism of Russell Hoban's remarkable adult novel "Kleizeit", where the existentially angst-filled central character (literally, "Little Time") is able to talk with Memory, and Word, and Death -- and God! And in some ways Maria is just as much in her own jumbled Wonderland of the present natural world and the memories of the lived in landscape as was Lewis Carroll's "Alice". The almost writhing fecundity of plant-life in the vigorous heat of summer induces a psychological crisis comparable to Jean-Paul Sartre's remarkable philosophical novel "Nausea". And the title? Hanging in the old house is an old cross-stitch (needle-point) "sampler". It contains some of the first clues to the mystery of the old house and what happened to those who lived in it. This is a quiet, slow, absorbing, and profoundly rewarding book. But then, that's the kind of book Penelope Lively writes! Interestingly, Maria's growth as a character resembles that of Fern Arable, in E.B. White's "Charlotte's Web". And Joan G. Robinson, who may be best known for her delightful stories of "Teddy Robinson", also wrote comparable stories of almost-haunted children, such as "When Marnie Was There", and "The House in the Square". Lively is in fine company! John Gough -- Deakin University -- jugh@deakin.edu.au --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.bo/products/40080848-a-stitch-in-time-collins-modern-classics](https://www.desertcart.bo/products/40080848-a-stitch-in-time-collins-modern-classics) --- *Product available on Desertcart Bolivia* *Store origin: BO* *Last updated: 2026-06-09*