Known for witty, entertaining fantasies, Ibbotson (Dial-a-Ghost, p. 744, etc.) dispenses with magic wands and mythical creatures here and dishes up her best work yet—a topnotch 1910 adventure featuring exotic, vividly evoked locales, a caricature-rich cast filled with likeable (as well as thoroughly despicable) characters, and enough plot to fill an entire trilogy. Two years after the death of her parents, young Maia departs London’s Mayfair Academy For Young Ladies for Manaus, a remote town on the Amazon where the Carters, distant relatives, have at last been located. With her travels a new governess, Miss Arabella Minton, outwardly a cross between Mary Poppins and Atilla the Hun, inwardly a canny, resourceful, big-hearted sort with sadness in her past. Together, Maia and Miss Minton confront the Carters, as dysfunctional a crew as ever was, and also become involved in rescuing two more young orphans—one a penniless actor, the other a scion of a wealthy British aristocrat’s black-sheep son—from unpleasant fates. While skillfully weaving together numerous plot lines and suspense-intensifying complications—Maia and Miss Minton, for instance, love but do not come to understand or trust each other until nearly the end—the author gives her four central characters the inner stuff to cope with an array of challenging situations, and rewards them all with bright, diverse futures. And, of course, their prejudiced, mean-spirited adversaries get what they deserve in full measure. With a rain forest steeped in beauty and mystery for backdrop, this romp will transport not just Ibbotson’s fans, but legions of Potterites and their ilk as well. Illustrations not seen. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-525-46739-4
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2001
A harsh, patchy tale of the first Crusade. Bradford yokes a conventional romance between a young stonemason and the daughter of an apothecary to an ugly account of the unreasoning fervor, multiple treacheries, genocide, and bloody massacres that marked the People's Crusade, from Cologne to Jerusalem, in 1096. It's an uneasy match: Gentle, pacifist Bruno and 16-year-old Ursula, with her preference for hot baths and disdain for money, are not credible products of their times, and are never seriously affected by the violent events. Rather than burn at the stake as a witch, Ursula accompanies her feeble father on the march from Cologne to Constantinople. As the other Crusaders pillage towns and massacre Jews (offstage), Ursula heals an injured dog, rescues an abused child, repels assaults on her virtue, and survives two attacks, all without injury; Bruno is forced to kill a man (also offstage), but his depression lasts only until the two get back to Cologne and discover that they love each other. In the end, Ursula finds a bag of money in her burnt house, but gives it away, saying, ``I already have everything I need.'' Steer readers to Karen Cushman's The Midwife's Apprentice (1995) for its more richly developed characters and vivid, better-integrated picture of medieval life. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-525-67539-6
Page Count: 195
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1996
Williams (ABC Kids, below, etc.) takes readers back to a squalid, brutal 15th century for this heavy tale of a family tormented by its dreadful occupation. Because Lily's father and mother are the local lord’s executioners, she and her parents must live outside the town walls, banned from the church, feared, and shunned by all. Ironically, these killers are also healers, making ends meet between executions by providing occasional furtive visitors with herbal poultices and remedies. Lily’s father takes refuge in drink; she and her mother in each other and in caring for injured wild animals. Then the fragile equilibrium that Lily has built shatters as, in succession, her mother sickens and dies, peer pressure destroys a budding friendship with a town child, and her naïve notion that criminals automatically deserve what they get unravels when she witnesses horrible punishments meted out for trivial offenses, then learns that her own mother escaped hanging by marrying her father. She leaves in the end, hoping to escape the stigma. Despite a contrived final hint that Lily has made a new and happier life for herself, this brief story is so weighed down by its tormented cast and narrow setting that it's more akin to John Morressey’s grim Juggler (1996) than Karen Cushman’s Midwife’s Apprentice (1995). (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: June 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-8050-6234-3
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2000
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
