From: Ching, Edie <Edie_Ching>
Date: Wed, 31 Aug 2005 16:28:56 -0400

One of my favorites is Journey to the River Sea by Ibbotson who freely admits she was trying to write in the mode of The Secret Garden. Both protagonists have been abandoned by the "death" of their parents but the European child, Maia, is then miserably abandoned by the relatives who take her from the school where she has found a home and bring her to the Amazon Basin where they exploit her for her wealth they way they exploit the natives and natural surroundings. Clovis is exploited by his traveling performers but Finn who is also an "orphan" is loved and supported by the native tribe who claim him as their own.

Ibbotson follows this with The Star of Kazan which is almost a crueler version of abandonment because Annika, a foundling who has found a home with an eccentric but loving group of individuals is taken by her
"mother" only to also be exploited in many ways by this woman who feeds on Annika's idealization of a mother. When both books are resolved the relief that sweeps over the reader is palpable.

 

Edie Ching

 

Lower School Librarian

St. Albans School for Boys

Washington, D.C.

edie_ching at cathedral.org

 
Received on Wed 31 Aug 2005 03:28:56 PM CDT