The Star of Kazan

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This is, if I may put it thus, a sensual novel. One feels the chill in Spittal and the warmth of the Viennese kitchen; the frugality of the meals in the north contrasts with the richness of the recipes, the dishes and desserts described in the household Annika grows up in; one senses the false emotions and pretended affections Annika gets in some quarters with the genuine feelings she receives in her adopted family. Above all Ibbotson shows due respect for all her characters, even many of the more despicable -- all get their appropriate deserts, even those who we might feel deserved somewhat more just deserts after all their knavery. Ellie has worked for the professors as their cook since she was 14 years old. She is a very good cook like her mother and grandmother before her. Ellie often goes on walks in the countryside with Sigrid on their days off from work. The novel reads more like a mystery novel with elements of suspense, adventure and even a bit of horror which makes for an interesting read. I like how the story takes unexpected turns, while at the same all the little details and hints fit together and has a satisfactory payoff at the end. The character development is really good with some really memorable character. I particularly liked the worrying professors and the antics they got upto!

The Star of Kazan by Eva Ibbotson: 9780142405826 The Star of Kazan by Eva Ibbotson: 9780142405826

Good book. You think it is predictable but it really isn't. There is strong story line and a nice calm ending. A lady works as a cook in a grand professors house in Vienna, Austria. She finds a baby in a beautiful church and she and her friend, the housemaid raise the baby like she is their own. They name her Annika after the cooks mother. When Annika is twelve a woman appears at the front door of the professors house. She says she is Annika's mother and takes to her house in germany and i... Hermann is Edeltraut's son, and heir to the family estate. He is a couple of years younger than Annika and obsessed with all things marshal. Hoping for a future military career, he follows the timetable of the officer school he dreams of attending each day. Ibottson began writing with the television drama 'Linda Came Today', in 1965. Ten years later, she published her first novel, The Great Ghost Rescue. Ibbotson has written numerous books including The Secret of Platform 13, Journey to the River Sea, Which Witch?, Island of the Aunts, and Dial-a-Ghost. She won the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize for Journey to the River Sea, and has been a runner up for many of major awards for British children's literature.Annika is asked by Loremarie Egghart, a snobby rich girl whom Annika despises, to read to her great-aunt. Annika does so and the two (Annika and Loremarie's great aunt) become friends, telling each other about their lives. Loremarie's great aunt was a famous theatre personality who went by the stage name La Rondine. They become so close that the great-aunt leaves Annika her jewels when she dies, having been told that the jewels are pastings of the real ones which she had sold through a jeweler.

The Star of Kazan by Eva Ibbotson - Fantastic Fiction The Star of Kazan by Eva Ibbotson - Fantastic Fiction

Reading the title of the book, I imagined it to be a Fantasy book given its title as well as the cover image which invokes a sense of magic and mystery. The book in fact a historical fiction/ mystery novel which is set in early 20th Century in Vienna which was a part of the Austro Hungarian and German empire at the time. However given the evocative description of the neighbourhoods in Vienna, the Spanish Riding school, brooding castles in the German countryside and food delicacies, it could very well pass for a fantasy novel as well! The professors are all siblings and have lived in the same house all their lives. None of them are married and are unlikely to be any time soon. I admired the heart in this story which emphasised the lengths some may go to find love and true friendship; that, and the authenticity of the details with which Ibbotson invested the narrative felt right to me. Even the fictional aspects I found convincing, such as the school at the schloss at Grossenfluss which at times outdid Brontë's Lowood School, and the von Tannenberg's castle of Spittal which belies its name, deriving as it does from the word for hospital as a place of healing. The uncredited map which accompanies this edition shows Grossenfluss and Spittal in the old region of Pomerania, once part of Prussia and now split between Germany in the west and Poland in the east; you will, however search vainly for either location, or that of the spa town of Bad Haxenfeld, even though castles and spas are numerous in this area. Stefan Bodek is the son of a poor washerwoman. His father is a groundsman in the Prater. He is the third of six brothers and the strongest. He wants to be an engineer but fears that he can't afford to study.

Fitting into a new scenario is always tough, but for Annika who has been used to a warm and friendly Vienna, her new home throws up many nasty surprises. Unfriendly relatives…lies and secrets…dreary food...dank climate...things are not as Annika imagined her new life to be. I loved the adventure hidden beneath this book, I love Eva Ibbotson because of her imagination and creativity. At first I thought this book would have been pretty predictable but as I got nearer to the middle or the climax, it got more and more exciting.

The Star of Kazan by Eva Ibbotson - Pan Macmillan

Lo stile della Ibbotson è sublime! Si diverte ad esasperare i caratteri dei personaggi creando splendide caricature ai quali dona un tocco personale per far capire al lettore se quel personaggio è buono o cattivo. Jim Trelease (of the Read-Aloud Handbook) recommended this book to me about 7 years ago. I have chosen it for my 11 year old Book Club this year and I'm anxious to see how the girls enjoy it. Fourteen-year-old Opal's family falls on hard times when her accountant father foolishly forges a cheque to support his family. In 1896, in a pilgrim church in the Alps, an abandoned baby girl is found by a cook and a housemaid. They take her home, and Annika grows up in the servants' quarters of a house belonging to three eccentric Viennese professors. She is happy there, but dreams of the day when her real mother will come to find her. I loved the subtle humor in this. It got me from the first chapter, when Ellie (a middle-aged cook) is hiking up a mountain with her friend Sigrid, and stops in a church to, as she tells it, pray for her dearly departed mother that she dreamed about last night. Sigrid rolls her eyes and says "I told you not to wear those new boots on the hike."With Frau Edeltraut discredited, Annika splits the wealth of the jewel sales with the Eggharts and proceeds to live a content life with her friends, Zed and the professors and Sigrid and Ellie, who she now recognises as her mother. Oh God, she had to believe that her mother was good. How did people live if they thought their mother was dishonest?' Lccn 2004045455 Ocr tesseract 5.0.0-alpha-20201231-10-g1236 Ocr_detected_lang en Ocr_detected_lang_conf 1.0000 Ocr_detected_script Latin Ocr_detected_script_conf 0.9763 Ocr_module_version 0.0.13 Ocr_parameters -l eng Old_pallet IA-WL-2000026 Openlibrary_edition