A splendid orphan story --- and a good one for reinforcing the idea that we can make our own families. I loved the turn-of-the-century Vienna setting, and there were just the right amount of fairy/folk tale touches. Excellent for 10-13 year old girls, but also for adults who like old-fashioned stories. Loremarie is a snobby little girl whose father is very rich. She never really cared for her great aunt, known in the theater as La Rondine. I liked the parts of this story that took place in Vienna. The author made it sound beautiful and charming. Also, the food sounded delicious. The parts that took place in Germany were boring. Not much happens there in this story.

The Star of Kazan Download - OceanofPDF [PDF] [EPUB] The Star of Kazan Download - OceanofPDF

There’s a lot of warmth and ease in the storytelling. And the author takes the time to show us Annika’s life, from when she is raised as a foundling by a housemaid and a cook who work in the professors’ house in Vienna to when she thinks she has finally found her true home at Spittal with her mother, one of the great “vons”. Ibbotson, master of the “poor orphan makes good” tale, offers another eminently satisfying example, this one wrapped in a valentine to Vienna, the author’s natal city. Raised by servants to be “a person who was interested in doing things, not having them,” 11-or-so-year-old foundling Annika sees a dream come true when lovely, regal Edeltraut von Tannenberg appears at the door one day, joyously announcing that she’s her real mother. Blinded by adoration, Annika barely notices how badly in need of repairs is her fortress-like new home, or how poorly she fits in with her spoiled and predatory new “family.” Readers will, though, as piece by piece, the author reveals an elaborate, clever fraud involving faked documents, smoothly plausible lies, and a hoard of supposedly imitation jewelry that Annika has inherited from an elderly neighbor. Creating suspense by letting readers into the scheme long before Annika and her friends, Ibbotson also paints a vivid picture of pre-WWI Vienna, from its delectable pastries to the famed show horses of the Spanish Riding School. Along with this beguiling atmosphere and expertly developed plot, readers will long remember the admirable Annika and cheer her eventual, well-deserved, triumph. Illustrations not seen. (Fiction. 10-13) Ovo je ljubić za devojčice od 10 do 12 godina, jedan kroz jedan - lepo i dobro nahoče, humane kuvarice šašavih profesora, otmene plemkinje sa mračnim tajnama, seksi zagonetni čergarski dečak na konju! Plus carski Beč, valceri, torte, dragulji itd. itd. Vrlo zabavno i potpuno zadovoljavajuće na tom avantura&romantika nivou. PDF / EPUB File Name: The_Star_of_Kazan_-_Eva_Ibbottson.pdf, The_Star_of_Kazan_-_Eva_Ibbottson.epub This is a story about longing for a fairy tale to happen to you, the fairy tale turning out a lot scarier than you had imagined, and then realising that your life was already a beautiful fairy tale and embracing that with gratitude and joy.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. The story opens with two Viennese servants, Ellie and Sigrid, who, on their day off, discover a newborn baby girl left behind in a church of the alpine village of Pettelsdorf. With the infant is a note asking for her to be taken to a nunnery in Vienna, but when Ellie and Sigrid find that the nunnery is in quarantine for typhus, they decide to take the baby home and raise her as their own. They name her Annika after Ellie's mother and decide not to give her away after the typhus quarantine is over.

The Star of Kazan by Eva Ibbotson - review - The Guardian

I don't know how Ibbotson does it, but her storytelling can only be described as LOVELY and DELIGHTFUL. 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. urn:lcp:starofkazan0000ibbo_a9e4:lcpdf:9557d039-f6a6-431e-b4aa-9bfb412ba629 Foldoutcount 0 Identifier starofkazan0000ibbo_a9e4 Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t4nm43d1m Invoice 1652 Isbn 1405050845

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You are soon transported to a magical city that seems to hum with colour, light and vitality. This is a book to be savored and enjoyed at a leisurely pace. The Star of Kazan by Eva Ibbotson makes your heart beat faster than a mouse's heartbeat. From an abandoned baby, to a grim suicide to a very volatile school and many more gripping events, The Star of Kazan has no bounds to its extraordinary moments. Nonostante ormai non sia più una bambina, e da diverso tempo direi, è stato un piacere leggere questa storia.

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

After twelve-year-old Annika, a foundling living in late nineteenth-century Vienna, inherits a trunk of costume jewelry, a woman claiming to be her aristocratic mother arrives and takes her to live in a strangely decrepit mansion in Germany. She only has one wish…that her birth mother sweeps in one day and says, ‘Where is she? Where is my long lost daughter?’. And here the adage of “Be careful what you wish for, it just may come true” comes into full play. Very soon, an aristocratic lady named Edeltraut von Tannenberg comes to claim Annika and swoop her off to a cold and desolate castle in Germany. Twelve years pass and it is now 1908. For Annika, life in Vienna is perfect. She attends a local school whilst helping the adult maids with the day-to-day duties of running the household, has her friends, Pauline and Stefan, and loves her adopted family (Ellie and Sigrid, and the three professors who they all work for) very much. 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. I've just reread this book for the above-mentioned Book Club -- and I think that I like and admire it even better the second time.The story is about a girl named Annika, who as a baby, is found abandoned in a church by 2 maids. The maids raise her, and despite how happy she is with them, and her life in Vienna, she still dreams of the day that her mother will come to get her. Her mother does come to get her one day, and takes her to her mansion in Germany, but things are not as they seem. In fact, they are much much worse. One day while Annika is walking with Zed and Hector, the dog, Hector discovers some remnants of La Rondine's trunk in the lake, but there is no sign of the jewels. Upon asking Frau Edeltraut of the trunk's mysterious appearance, she retorts that Zed must have stolen it. Afraid of being arrested, Zed flees Spittal with Rocco and arrives in Vienna to tell the professors his suspicions about Annika's mother. 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 novel is also set in a historical context and makes references to historical figures and famous locations in Vienna and is written in a very evocative way. It's clear from the writing that the author is drawing on her own childhood exepriences growing up in Vienna which gives it a very authentic feeling to it. The book is also very interesting in that even though its written in 1999, it has the feel of a 'classic' novel and one can easily mistake the book as having been written much earlier. Sigrid works for the professors as a housemaid. She works well, but can be a little 'snappy' at times. Sigrid is very good friends with Ellie and is a hardworking role model for Annika.

The Star of Kazan (Audio Download): Eva Ibbotson, Ruth Jones The Star of Kazan (Audio Download): Eva Ibbotson, Ruth Jones

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!

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An enthralling adventure set in turn-of-the-century Vienna. From the author of the bestselling Journey to the River Sea. This is just a fun, very enjoyable tale of an foundling child, Annika, who was taken in by Sigrid and Ellie, the servants of a trio of professors in Vienna. She has a happy life there with her adopted mother Ellie, her "aunt" and "uncles", and her many friends throughout the town. She daydreams about her mother one day coming for her, until it actually happens and she is dragged off to Germany. Gudrun is a rather pathetic looking girl who is the daughter of Edeltraut von Tannenberg's sister and cousin to Hermann, whom she worships as a hero. She always wants whatever Hermann desires. Her most rebellious scene is when she ignores her mother and tells Ellie and the professors that Annika has been sent to Grossenfluss. Gudrun is not as evil as her mother, she is just uninformed.