Prefered the cover on netgalley.
This is a middle grade book.
I could really relate with Martha ( Martey Mouse) I was a lot like her at that age. I still am.
Ivey was an interesting character like me she has the peter pan complex. Seriously who wants to growup being a grownup sucks.
The title is misleading I thought it was going to be a supernatural read but it wasn't.
There is no action just a lot of drama.
This was an entertaining read and I do recommend it.

I don't remember when I first read this book. I think I got it from the Scholastic Book Company when I was in second grade (1971 or 1972); we lived in a very rural area in northern New Mexico and my mother basically allowed me to order every book I wanted when the Scholastic catalog came. I know I then read it many, many times over the years that followed... and then, of course, at some point it got packed away with the rest of my "kid's books" and I haven't touched it in ages.

But now, as it goes, I'm "old enough for fairy tales again" (not that I really ever stopped - I'm not a Gryffindor for nothing), and I found it again when I was recommended other books by Keatley-Snyder. While looking those up, I found "The Changeling" again.

I knew this book had been very formative for my young mind, I just had forgotten quite how MUCH. I was Martha -- chubby, frightened of everything, burst into tears at the slightest thing; the main difference was I was the oldest child in the family, and, of course, I never had an Ivy.

I wanted to be like Martha when I was young, because I was sure I would grow up like she did, tall and slim and loved by everyone... but I never made it THERE. I stayed chubby, but I did end up in all the plays in high school, as a character actor. I made up stories, I wrote them down, I dreamed and wished and never wanted to grow up (and really, that spell DOES work)... I never got thin, but I eventually met my own "Ivy." I didn't meet her early enough to dream with me on that childhood level, but we plan on growing old together, if possibly never grown UP together (because she loved the book, too).

I know I don't say a whole lot about the actual book here, but my review is based on feelings and impressions rather than the events in the story. Needless to say, it still holds up just as beautifully as it did then -- sure, now it only took me about two hours to read instead of weeks... but I still lost myself just as deeply within the beautiful lines that Keatley-Snyder wove here. I only wish I could be as brilliant a storyteller (not to say I don't TRY).

I still love this book - I love the story, the characters, my feelings and impressions when I read it and how it makes me feel afterward. Beautiful, dreamy, mystic, alien, lost, found, sure of myself, unsure, scared, exhilarated, joyous... everything. Everything. I think this book may have been everything to my growing up. I've never lost it.

Know all the questions, but never the answers.

It's too bad that it never got to the part about her being a changeling and it was only about the human side of things. Does anyone know which kind of faeries she was descended from?

Aptly named because it changed me

I read this book as a kid and it was definitely one of the few books that truly affected me. I remember I printed out the stay young “spell” and hung it on my wall as words to live by. While cleaning things out the other day I found my old copy so I bought the new digital version and reread. Still awesome. Highly recommend. Probably should reprint the spell. Might need it more now than ever. :)

I am delighted that Open Road is making some of my most treasured books available as eBooks. Zilpha Keatley Snyder was my very favorite author as a child. My Mama reminds me that I forced her to read a couple of Snyder's books because I loved them so much. The Changeling is a wonderful mix of reality and fantasy. It has terrific characters and a great atmosphere. Ms Snyder at her best. Thank you, Open Road!

This wasn't at all what I expected...which turned out to be a pleasant surprise. It may be a bit dated (it was written in 1970, after all!) and does not have the fast pace expected of a book written now, but this was a gentle, well-written story of the friendship between two little girls who didn't quite fit into their families. Highly imaginative, and very much written from a child's point of view, it was very enjoyable.

This, along with The Egypt Game, is one my favorite Zilpha Keatley Snyder books. It's just a beautiful story about the changing friendship between two girls--Martha, who is painfully shy, and Ivy, the unique child of a nomadic family. This book made me want to stay age 11 forever, just to experience the freedom of childhood that these girls did.

Ivy Carson belonged to the notorious Carson family, which lived in a run-down house in suburban Rosewood. But Ivy was not a typical Carson. There was something wonderful about her. Ivy explained it by saying that she was a changeling, a child of supernatural parents who had been exchanged for the real Ivy Carson at birth. (excerpted from Amazon)

This book is so good! I really enjoyed when reading it.

The story is about a young girl who lack of confidence. Her older brother and sister are so popular, while her parents are sophisticated. But Martha feels like an ugly duckling surrounded by swans because she is overweight, buck-toothed, and shy.

And the friendship between Martha and Ivy is heart warming. It's beautiful to see how their friendship can transforms Martha from ugly duckling to beautiful swan.

I do think anyone who felt like an outcast will love this book.

It's a simple story, really. Two girls, their friendship over the years of their childhood. But there is magic in it, too. Magic in the story, and in the reshaping of their realities into what they wanted, and needed, them to be, and magic in their friendship. This is a beautiful book about the power of imagination, and female friendship, and those crazy years between being a kid and being a teenager. Martha is every kid who feels like they don't belong and Ivy is the one kid who has never been concerned with belonging. I think Ivy is the kid adults wish they had been... not in such a hurry to grow up, continuing to believe in magic long after most had given it up, and who dreams and runs and dances with joy and without caring what the world thinks. I read this with my 11 year-old daughter and I want those things for her. To have an Ivy or to BE an Ivy. To play and dream and create and to just be a kid, as long as possible.

I accidentally deleted my review, but I do remember that this was a coming-of-age story with an interesting twist. And the girls both had strong imaginations, which I value.

I wish this hadn't ended quite so abruptly, but otherwise this was a very enjoyable YA read. It's similar to her other books The Egypt Game and The Gypsy Game, in that the theme of imagination and elaborate children's fantasies runs deep. I wish the characters had been more developed, especially Ivy. I found myself obsessing over her backstory. A deeply beautiful but also quite sad book about growing up and what happens between childhood friends sometimes.