From: Mary Ann Gilpatrick <MGilpatrick>
Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 11:56:56 -0700

I read *Star of Kazan* last week while I was off with a recovering knee. It was a grabber; great historical fiction that reads like magical realism. (and our one copy of *Stallions of Lipizzan* is going out, too.)

Mary Ann Gilpatrick Walla Walla Public Library 238 E. Alder Walla Walla WA 99362 509R7E50 x510 FAX: 509R7748 mgilpatrick at ci.walla-walla.wa.us

I just started The Star of Kazan by Eva Ibbotson and am finding it delightful. I have wanted to read Ibbotson since The Secret of Platform

13 was published but never took the time. Perhaps the current title struck me more forcibly because my husband's grandfather was born and orphaned in Vienna. By page 5, I was already laughing with Ibbotson's descriptive images: "It was a lovely church--one of those places that look as though God might be about to give a marvelous party." Or the parcel,

really the orphan, found near the pulpit, "It was about the size of a rutabaga--quite a large one...." A rutabaga?? How funny. Who else would have described a newborn this way? A sugar beet, maybe, but not a

rutabaga! (Rutabagas are significant here in Michigan's Upper Peninsula

since we order our pasties with or without them.)

I caught up with *Haunting of Granite Falls* at the same time, and will booktalk it in school visits, starting next week.

I also caught up with *Billy and Me,* a total knee-slapper with a well-disguised Life Lesson at its center.
Received on Wed 18 May 2005 01:56:56 PM CDT